"Tissue" Moments

My definition of a "tissue" moment is when you get overcome with emotion, but not in a sad way, like when the hubby and I were married.

I guess since Dominic is in the final two weeks of elementary school, I was thinking the other day about one of the kids in Dominic's class. This little guy is not as verbal as Dominic and I can recall a handful of years back when I was in the classroom and Miss Laura, his teacher at the time, called me over.  Dominic's classmate recited the alphabet!  Just thinking of it now, as I'm writing this post, makes me very emotional. I will definitely remember May as being a month of "tissue" moments. When Dominic made his First Holy Communion on May 3, I was so proud of him.

I held it together when he did it, but when the last of the kids in his class made their First Holy Communion, I caught myself sniffling! A week ago today, Lauren graduated from high school. My stepson is so incredibly busy with his job right now, but he took a few days off and flew in to help her celebrate the big day!

Even with the big age differences between them, you can tell the "kids" adore each other.

Since I am the "queen" of prompting Dominic to do things, I felt a real tug in my heart, when shortly after my stepson got here, he went over and gave his big brother a hug unprompted! My stepson and I share an incredibly close bond with each other. I dug way back in my picture "archives" for this picture :)

He has a mom who has done a wonderful job of raising him, so I have tried really hard to never take her place. Since he and I weren't together for Mother's Day this year, he gave me a card when he visited. He wrote a message inside the card that said, "thank you for being such a wonderful step-mom." I gave him a big hug and told him I loved him :) I can't believe he is 30!  I felt so blessed this Mother's Day that's for sure!  Dominic made me this at school:

 Lauren made me this ten years ago, and I still love it:

Yesterday morning, Dominic was saying, "love you" to Lauren. She said, "who do you love?" He said back, "La-La!"  The day after tomorrow, the hubby, Lauren and I are getting a "tour" of the middle school Dominic will start attending in the Fall of 2014. Two days after that my baby girl  Lauren turns 18!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Do you think I'll need a case of tissues by the end of this week?!?!?!