sadness and gladness

First the sadness: Friday was officially my last day at work here in North Carolina. There were many tears. I cried the hardest when I had to say goodbye to my friend Layne, who's become a surrogate East coast mom/cool-fun-hip-aunt/and wonderful friend all rolled into one. She gave me a gorgeous wire and beaded snowflake (to commemorate my first ever that I caught right here in North Carolina), and a Waterford crystal leprechaun. When I saw the Waterford box, I was very excited, and started to weep of course. Layne then told me that her husband and hand carried that over from Ireland to give to her and she wanted me to have it so I could start my own collection. I was a mess after that!

Me & Layne (she's holding the flowers I gave them all).

My snowflake.



My leprechaun.



Here's the whole lot of us, including baby Skylar and her soon-to-be-baby brother Hunter.



So now, the gladness: my jacket finally arrived! However, right after purchasing it, we got a message from the eBay seller saying she'd sent out the wrong coat by accident and could we please please return it to her if she refunded us some of the money for the correct jacket. Jason and I had no problems and calmly awaited the arrival of my boxes. They both arrived on the same day--so of course, I had to open both boxes to see which jacket was mine. The first box was my jacket...



...but I had to have a little peak at the other one too! It was beautiful as well! It wasn't much different from mine, except the collar was more squared and pointed, and it had a four button closure. Did I ship it back? Did I hell! I turned to hubby and without even saying it he said, "Go ask her how much she wants for it." So in the end, the seller was more than happy to sell the other jacket as well, and now I have two beautiful black wool coats--perfect for the cold winter ahead of us!