Cinnamon Dulce memories

Tried out a new flavor of International Cappuccino instant coffee today.  Just the smell of it instantly took me back to being a child and sitting at my great grandmothers kitchen table.  She use to make us chocolate milk and cinnamon toast, every time we visited.  It was the best cinnamon toast i've ever had.  Its a memory i'll never forget, funny the things we hold on to, the memories from our childhood that mean the most.

i love how a smell can instantly take you back to another time, another place.  Smell is most strongly linked to memory, one of our first and most basic senses.  Smell has such a strong power to vividly bring back memories, its more personal than other senses it brings back memories of people, places, and things. 

i just love it when i smell something familiar from my past even if i cant place it, it is comforting.

The smell of the Cinnamon this morning made me smile :)  It it so tasty and very comforting. i'm not sure i'll buy any other flavor from now on...well with my luck they will decide to discontinue it...lets hope not :)

"When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered· the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls· bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory" -Marcel Proust "The Remembrance of Things Past"

i checked my computer for a picture of my grandmother to add to this post and was sad to see i didnt have any on here. i had scanned in a ton of old pics from my mothers side but it must've been before i got my new computer, years ago.  And i never added them back on i guess, since they are not there :/ so i searched my house and albums and came up with several that made me smile.  I have these two pics framed and in my foyer of my grandmother Mable and  my grandfather Alberto when they were in high school. 

 Grand pa was a hottie. ha.  i just love these frames!  I should go back to TJ Max and buy more....i've been wanting to hang pics on the walls here forever....another project on the never ending to do list...












This photo below is closer to what i remember them looking like :) Although i must've been very young when it was taken.  I dont really remember my grandfather.  He had Alzheimers since i can remember and if he ever spoke to me, he called me Teresa (my mother's name) Makes me kinda sad to think i never really knew him, wish i could've






can you tell i need to dust...i tried to before i took the picture...but dusting is not my specialty :)

This a picture of Grandpa and Grandma with all of their children in 1947 so the picture says.  so that was definitly even prior to my mothers birth.  The girl to the left is my mothers mother, Marjorie, next to her is my auntie Suz, the far right is my aunt Jean, both those aunts are my great aunts... the two boys are Jim and Dave....my family history is rusty i think the older is Dave who passed away a few years ago.  I want to get back into the family history, its very interesting. I started collecting information when my mothers mom was still alive, she died several years ago, and prior she gave all the family photos she had to myself to keep for the family. I enjoy them so much. There were however so many that no one knew who they were, if they were family or friends.  I now completely understand my mothers instructions to always write on the back of photos who they are and the date b/c i might know who it is but 30 yrs from now will i or will my children in the future...of coarse we have Facebook now and you can just tag people :)  i wonder what will come of pictures with all this online scrap-booking of sorts on Facebook & web albums on Snapfish such.  reminds me i want to print out more pictures. i'm extremely behind in this....

This picture is how i remember grandma wells
This is how she was when Lily was just a little potato.
I don't recall when she passed but i know lily doesn't really remember her. Makes me kinda sad. I'm really grateful tho
that we had these pictures taken of the 5 generations of us girls...im pretty sure all first born :)  I hunted forever for this picture, i know i have several copies, and im sure at least one framed but couldnt find it!  I was almost ready to call mom and ask if she could send me a camera phone pic of her copy b/c it just must be included in this post! when i found the envelope of the extra copies in lilys incomplete baby scrapbook....did anyone ever really finish a baby scrapbook for their child.  i know i dont have hardly one for either...

I miss my grandmother often, especially during the holidays. We always spent holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, at Grandma Wells house. I'm sure some were spent at Grandma Hustons house too but i remember the house on Delorenzi holding the most memories!  Tons of food! Suz and Will always made the turkey.  There was always a puzzle in the sun room.  Grandma always had oatmeal cookies in a glass jar. And the guys were always watching football.  I also remember the creepy bathroom door off the kitchen that had weird face-like shapes from the wood on it...I miss that house, I miss my grandmother more. I try to keep the memory alive and drive by a sometimes. Of coarse the house looks more and more different each time.  Tim and I took the kids to Bendix park which is at the end of the street where they use to live.  We flew kites, it was really too cold but i really enjoy sharing that park with my kids, i have so many great memories of family gatherings there as a kid.  Its quite magical b/c there is woods (which they are clearing out more and more) in the back, a factory on the west side of it and a row of backyards to the east....only one road to get in and you have to cross the train tracks.  I always thought it was neat that if a train was going by you were stuck there at that park. In later years i often thought how neat it would be (and a little freaky) if the train passed and you were in a different time...the past b/c i love nostalgia.

here is tyler, lily, nadja, tim and bo years ago at Bendix. looks like we flew kites that day also :) i love this idea of everyone on the slide, my mother use to take pictures like this when we'd go. i'm sure i have some old pics somewhere of us, but i'm not organized enough right now to find them....

I only have one grandparent left.  My dad's mother.  We visited her recently in Arkansas, will blog on it soon :)  I treasure the photos and memories of my grandmothers on my mom's side :)  And love that the smell of my cinnamon coffee this a.m. made me think fondly of our little tradition of cinnamon toast and chocolate milk at her kitchen table <3

today's quote:

fitting b/c my grandparents were spiritual people, although i am not.  I do however notice i have a cross necklace on in the 5 generation picture...

"In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future"

Alex Haley

Good morning, loves :)
Sonja