Show Me Thursday with Friends, Paper and a little Stimulus

I don't know about anyone else, but I love Sassy Cheryl's Show Me Thursday, because by nature, I am an extremely nosey person. SMT gives me  a chance to be nosey without offending anyone, not to mention getting my name in the box for a possible free image. All it takes is to post one picture(but not limited to one) of what you're working on or what's going on in your life during the week.

On Friday of this past week, I met a group of my HS friends in Jackson(150 miles from home) for lunch. One of our classmates recently retired from the California School System, and her retirement present was a month long trip back HOME. It's a long day if I do the trip down and back all in one day, and since I needed to stimulate the economy a bit before the lunch, I opted to drive down Thursday night and spend the night with my sister, who works in Jackson. The company that she works for had a printing department that they shut down almost a year ago. It was filled with paper, card stock, and chipboard that they were throwing away. She's been steadily bringing it back to her apartment and stockpiling it and sharing it with me. Her apartment is tiny, since it's where she lives during the week only. Her home is 60 miles north of me. So first thing on arriving in Jackson and at my sister's was to load half of the paper in my trunk.

My sister doesn't drink coffee(I think she may be kin to Marlene), so shortly after she left for work(before 7), I showered dressed  and headed out for the nearest Starbucks for my caffeine fix and to wait for the stores to open. Here's where the stimulus comes into effect. First I headed to Michaels(opened at 9) and picked up a few items on sale and then headed to Fleet Feet. It's the store that does such a wonderful job of fitting you in the right walking or running shoe, to the point, that I won't buy mine anywhere else. One pair of Saucony's and two pairs of Balega socks,  and then a quick trip by Sam's Club for a few staples and the cheapest gas, I've stimulated the economy about all I can afford.

So it's on to lunch. We call ourselves the GRIGs(Girls Raised in Greenwood), and we first started meeting for lunch when six of us were planning our 40th Class Reunion. They totally kept me sane when I was driving to Jackson to spend part of each week helping my brother take care of our Mother in the last year of her life. They weren't all close high school friends, but I have to tell you I count them today among the dearest friends I have.  The blond with the sunglasses is our California girl and our excuse for this lunch. The lady that's second from the left on the back row is the first person I ever tried to spend the night away from home with. Her dad had to take me home at 2:30 in the morning. Lunch was at the Palette Cafe at the Art Museum and our favorite place to meet. I think we all look pretty darn good for 60 and 61.

These last two pictures are the boxes of paper unloaded from my car(thanks to my sweet hubby) and then unboxed and stacked on the table so you can see what my haul was.

Starting on the left at the bottom of the stack and working up  is 11 x 17 in. chipboard,  11 x 17" 90 lb. card stock, 8 1/2 x 14" 90 lb. card stock. Next stack to the left is all 8 1/2 x 11" 90 lb. card stock. Third stack from the left is various colored 8 1/2 x 11" 20 lb. papers, followed by a stack of 65 and 67 lb. colored card stocks and finally a stack of 20 lb. and 24 lb. white paper. If it weren't so expensive to mail because of the weight, I'd gladly share with y'all.  Now I'm back out to TM to find a place to put all this paper and get it off the table. I will definitely be sharing some of this haul with our church preschool.

Come on and play along. You have until Wednesday at 5 p.m. EST to get in the challenge.