Anna M. Aquino

Dan and I had been believing God for a couple of items. We didn't have the extra for them. Through the course of several events the money came forth. God is so faithful! We were able to get what we needed. I wanted to say a special thanks to the Best Buy crew, Jose and Dora who work at the store on Osceola Parkway. They hooked us up with some extra savings and good customer serivce. Philippians 4:19 (NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

In my opinion, Tim Hawkins is one of the funniest comedians out there. If you have never heard of him I highly recommend you go to you tube and stick his name in the search engine. About an hour later, you will still be setting there with aching sides in tears. He‘s so funny. He has got a bit that I have been thinking about the spiritual applications of it for today’s blog. Here is the link for the sketch: http://youtu.be/CBhyskisVNM If you have young children, you know exactly the scenario in which he is talking. Those little toys inevitably find there way into the crevices of your carpet, and you do not realize it until it is one in the morning and you are up to go to the bathroom. How many of us have found ourselves at the mercy of a stupid McDonald’s toy or Lego at the break of dawn. It would be a great way to fight terrorism. :-) There are things as we walk in life that are set up to trap us when we least expect it. The devil would like nothing more to wait until we are in a place...

It’s been an emotionally charged weekend. Some very dear friends of mine were officially launched out from our church to pioneer a church in Minnesota. While this was a direction I knew would eventually happen, and had been bathed in prayer by many it was still hard to say goodbye. Knowing something is the will of God doesn’t always make it easy. I had thought I was going to be okay. I was so excited for them to be stepping into what is God’s will, but I started to get emotional on Saturday when their dining room table went into the moving van, and all I could think about is how much Natasha negotiated with the sales person when she bought it. I watched as we loaded the truck and saw the stool I made for one of their kids before he was born. It was if I was moving because I could see years of memories in that truck. When Dan and I moved across the country to FL in 2000 God led us to Freedom Life Church. Dan and I had no family here and no friends. We were unknown. It was a difficult ti...

When Dan and I first met, he did not have a bed to sleep on. Long story short he had plans to get one once he was settled but that took some extra time doing and an extra move. Eventually he purchased a queen-sized futon. It is weird sometimes the things one can become sentimentally attached to in life. That futon was our first couch after we were married. When we moved across country, we rolled the mattress up in the back seat and slept on it until the rest of it made the journey. It was my oldest daughter’s first bed after she had outgrown the crib and she did not like her bed. It spent some time in my youngest daughter’s nursery. I can easily think of half a dozen memories. That futon had been good to us. We knew it was time to let it go. We have gotten a bit more furniture over the years, and we just did not have the space for it. Therefore, despite the small paint smudges on the armrests from Dan when he was in art school, we sold it on Craiglist. It went to someon...

On Saturday we took the girls to the Lowe’s kids build and grow workshop. Their fun and free and those two f words are speaking my language. We’ve taken the girls to ones before and it’s always been a nice outing. In this one we were building wooden tow trucks. Really the kits aren’t too hard. Dan took one of the girls to help her, and I had the other. When I was in college I worked in a set studio and build sets for theatre. I know my way around a hammer and nails…at least I think I do, surely I could assist my youngest daughter in building a little toy tow truck. However I began to get very frustrated. The nails kept bending as I tried to attach the crank onto the toy. The sound of crying children and little hammers banging rang in my ears, and I love my daughter, but I had been hit a dozen too many times with a hammer as she tried to build this tow truck. My daughter was growing impatient and at that moment I bent yet another nail. “That’s it Dan you need to help.” I u...

To celebrate our 4th of July we were out at a lakefront close to where we live. There were booths set up in fair style and the booth for our church that we were helping at was right next to the beach area of the lakefront. My girls were playing in the sand and Dan and I kept an eye on them. All seemed well. They were happy playing and we could do what we had to do. Until I looked over and saw the girls were frantically searching for something. My youngest daughter had buried someone else’s shoe in the sand and forgot where she buried it. Fortunately the owner of the shoe wasn’t a random stranger but the shoe was missing no where to be seen. “What?” I started to panic as I glance on to the rolls of beach before me. “What do you mean you forgot where it is? You can’t just loose peoples shoes in the beach!” I stopped what I was doing and began searching. A perfect stranger who was setting on the ledge started to search with me. I could only guess that she was a mother and understood what ...

The story of a prop my husband made in college has become infamous in my lore of my family. Dan had a class in school in which they were required to make a prop my using a mold. My husband opted for molding a real turkey leg. I remember when he did this because I was in his apartment when he opened that mold. Somehow, I had this notion that he had molded a fake one, and when the mold opened and it looked so real, it took me a bit to realize what he’d done. The turkey leg became a part of all our moves. As we moved across country, it slowly worked its way into a funny topic of conversation in our living room. It did look like a real turkey leg. Finally, Dan decided to put it on his desk at work. A few years ago, a film crew came to Dan’s work to film a documentary. Really, Dan had not thought much of it. Having film crews where he works showing up is not too uncommon. One of the of the documentary saw the turkey leg on his desk. Evidently, he had been looking for one. “...