Anna M. Aquino

If you have followed my blogs for any length of time you have probably heard me tell part of this story before now. When I was in high school I was training to cheer for The Ohio State University, until I decided that I was going to get a standing back tuck on my own while on a carpeted concrete floor. Up until that point I could do with a spotter. It was not my brightest move to set up the video recorder as I rendered damage to my wrist. Which I will reiterate here I made the stunts, however at the very end of the tuck I came down and clipped my wrist several times. What resulted was reconstructive wrist surgery at age 16. I have a metal plate six screws and a pin in my right wrist. In order to recover from that surgery they put me in a foam brace that I had to wear everywhere. The brace looked like an overgrown squishy mailbox. I had to wear on my arm for probably a month after I returned to school. While I did not appreciate having to wear it, if I would not have worn it I ...

I hope all of you had an awesome Resurrection Weekend! He is Risen!! Several weeks ago I had someone claiming to be T.D. Jakes begin communication with me on twitter. At first I brushed him off thinking there was no way he was the real T.D. However this individual was persistent. We began exchanging a few direct messages back and forth. He then proceeded to invite me to go with himself and several other ministers over to Japan to preach over there. That was when I told him to email me at my website email. The conversation continued. At first I didn’t believe at all this was the real T.D. Jakes. However the more we exchanged emails the more I really thought it might. His phrasing on how he worded things sounded like the real T.D. The text emails were coming from Texas, and it was obvious this man spent a long time familiarizing himself with T.D. and his website because of the way he wove legitimate things about the real T. D. into the conversations. This went back a forth for several we...

When I was in Middle School (I think it was the 7th grade) our English teacher teamed up with different school’s English teacher for a bit. We were given pen pals from a neighboring school and then later in the year it was arranged that we would meet our pen pals at a park for an outing. It sounded like a good idea, except I had a problem with mine. My pen pal wanted to beat me up. I was typically a kid that stayed out of trouble, tried not to create waves, but my pen pal kept trying to tell me that she knew Luke Perry from 90210. Those were the years of the height of the Beverly Hills 90210 faze and I voiced my unbelief in a letter. She voiced her threats through friends and as the days toward the field trip drew near, I dreaded going. The day of the trip, it was beautiful. The birds were singing, and the smell of spring was in the air like a floral blanket. It was the perfect Ohio spring day, but I rode to the park that day as if wanting to sink under the seat. While I have ...

Several years ago our dear late pastor, Pastor Lee, invited my family and I the use of their pool while he and his wife were out of town. I was told how to get in the backyard and in case of emergency, ie one of my kids having to go to the bathroom, how to get in the house. It was such a nice offer we gladly packed the girls up and went to pastors house for a swim. I wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t actually go in the house. However, knowing kids, as soon as we got in the water my oldest had to go to the bathroom. After some trial and error we opened the door to the house, and an suddenly an alarm started to sound. We’d been swimming at their house before I was sure it was the children’s alarm, but after pushing the button we couldn’t get it off. That’s when panic started to seize Dan and I. Dan was sure it was the house alarm. He was convinced the police were going to show up. I tried to explain to him that even if they did it wasn’t that we were doing anything wrong. Chaos became...

Last weekend my family and I were blessed to get to go to Disney. Right before we left I said to everyone “Wear shoes that are comfortable!” The statement seemed like a no brainer but my oldest picked out shoes that I knew were going to hurt her feet. So I insisted that she wear the new pair of off brand crocs she’d gotten. The problem is that those shoes had been at the bottom of the bin and had gotten misshapen and their not as comfortable as they should be on her feet. I questioned her. Was she sure they were comfortable? “Yes mom…I’m sure.” The day was picturesque. We were serenaded in Frontier Land by a tuba, banjo and guitar singing “Zippity-do-da” while we ate our packed lunch from home. My youngest was finally tall enough to go on Splash Mountain, and while it was trying to get hot it was a beautiful day with just the right amount of breeze. However, half way through the day, I looked down and noticed my oldest was limping. The blisters on her feet were already st...

This afternoon I made an apple crisp and I as I was taking it out of the oven my youngest came running through the house asking me what I had made. “An apple crisp,” I replied as I tried not to burn my fingers. “Oh!” She began to run around again. “Mom, what did you make?” She asked me again. I know it is a standard childhood issue. However, it really irritates me that I am always feeling like I have to repeat myself repeatedly. “Monkeys have braces.” I responded. I was joking. I assumed she would laugh at me, and keep running around the house. “Mom made braces!” She went running to tell my oldest, “Do you want some?” I had to giggle at her. Then I began to think how much we do the same thing to God. The Bible is clear that we would hear the voice of God. John 10:27 (NIV) My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. Nevertheless, some of us, me included have the same habit as my youngest. No matter how many times He has talked to me on an issue, I am always asking the...

When I was in college I lived for a year on the 23rd floor of Morrill Tower on The Ohio State University’s campus. There are two towers: Lincoln and Morrill (Sadly nicknamed Sodom and Gamorrill) that etch themselves in the horizon of the campus in Columbus Ohio. Morrill is the one closest to the famous football Horseshoe. These dorms are built where the rooms are in a collection or pod of four rooms. Those four rooms share a bathroom and a living space. There are several pods per floor. I had a habit of visiting the pod next door, and maybe it was me, or maybe it was another girl but the door was left open one night to the main living room and someone came in and stole the ugly institution style coach that came in all the pods. I was blamed for leaving the door open. Weeks passed by. I had a friend who worked at the front desk. One day he came to me and told me he heard a rumor that there seemed to be some extra couches on the 17th floor. A few days after that news I decided since I wa...

Yesterday Dan and I happen to watch a movie that I had never heard of on Netflix. This movie called “What If?” I have to say was done really well, and being that I usually rate most Christian films overly cheesy it says a lot coming from me that I totally gave this one my approval. The script was written well, and I highly recommend you check it out. Here’s the link to their website.http://www.thewhatifmovie.com/ The premise of the move is that the main character played by Kevin Sorbo, who had a call of God on his life for ministry chooses not to follow it. Years later God gives him an encounter with an angel named “Mike” played by John Ratzenberger (“Cliff” from Cheers) where basically the lead character experiences a few weeks of what his life would have been like had he chosen to obey God’s plan for his life. In the end the main character is forced to make some powerful choices that not only affect himself but generations. This led Dan and I to discuss various times in our ...