I have done exactly the same right down to the regret part. hehe.
Yeah. teams emojis are quite crap. They mess with the generic ones and make them all look lame.
In my place GIFs are all the rage too. Even the management are sending them and you are thinking, hmm, maybe there is a limit!
My wife is big on gifs at work too and has gotten other managers and directors on board using them lol