like christmas in february!

well, today was once again full of surprises. i got two checks in the mail -- both unexpected. one that i had no idea was coming. the other, i had forgotten about. neither one was an exorbitant amount of money. but at this time in the economy and in my personal financial state, any money is a blessing!

the first check was only to cover the amount of shipping that it cost me to send the boots you see pictured above. i bought these rain boots over two years ago. they were my first ever rain boots as an adult. i loved them, but i found myself rarely wearing them. i wore them once to work on a rainy fall day... that was the day the above photos were taken. then i wore them one saturday last spring to go to the muddy forest preserve to take pictures.

but back to the photos and the reason i shipped these boots... about a year and a half ago, my friend chris and i started a just-for-fun blog called shoe love, because we are both big shoe lovers and just wanted to have fun with our fondness for shoes. the blog has since fallen by the way side because of our busy lives, but one day last fall, someone named kelly from washington came across the blog and saw the photo that chris, my friend {and co-worker at the time }, took of my boots. {the photos in my post are the shots i took while she was busy taking her own pictures of my boots -- one of which is in the shoe love post.} anyway, kelly saw the boots after happening upon our blog and loved them. she e-mailed me and asked where i got them, because she had been looking for red, plaid rain boots everywhere and could not find them.

so i e-mailed her back and informed her that i got them at nordstrom rack, that there was only one pair left when i found them, and that it had been a long time since i bought them. i just wanted her to know so that she would not get her hopes up, thinking she would be able to run out and get a pair for herself. then, i realized i really never wear them, and knowing how much she had her heart set on them, i asked her what her shoe size was. when i found out it was the same as mine, i told her i would send mine to her. i was sure she would enjoy them more than i had been. she was super excited and offered to send me money for them, but i told her not to worry about paying me for the boots, as long as she could reimburse me for the shipping cost.

i finally sent them off about a month ago, and today, there was a little box awaiting my arrival home from work with not only a check to cover the shipping cost, but a thank you card, two bars of delicious dark chocolate, and a thermos/travel-mug from the university where she is attending. so, so sweet! and very unexpected. it made my day. she had already e-mailed me to say thank you when she received the boots. that would have been enough for me. but she took the time to send a special little package. what a sweet thing to do!

and guess what else awaited me in the mail. a check from the company that i lost my job from back in april. apparently, everyone who worked there {"there" being no longer }, got a profit-sharing check. it was only just over $200. but as i said, it was unexpected and so needed. so it was everything to me! like a "wow... this never happens to me!" kind of surprise!

needless to say, i went to the bank, deposited my two checks, and had a bar of chocolate. i consider that a good day! and you know what? i could use good days these days. and i will take them in any form i can get them!