Anna M. Aquino

  As most of you know the story, when God put it on my heart to write my first book I honestly thought He’d gotten the wrong person. I was a kid who though has always had a gifting for creativity sorely lacks in grammatical correctness.   Ask me to diagram a sentence I might break down in tears.   (I have improved over the years.) In my heart I am a story teller, and being subjected to the laws of punctuation is a challenge.   I really cannot spell without spellcheck, and I’ve decided the boundaries of syntax in my work are subject to change.     I doubted me writing one book.   When that book initially didn’t go where I know it one day will.   God put it on my heart to write another and another, and another.   It gets to the point now where I typically have about four in my head at once while I’m working on one.   Though I have had some victories in the publishing industry I know that I will one day have more.   I do not b...

  Last weekend my family and I felt the need to start purging some things in the house.   We started the piles of: “Things we are keeping”, “Things we are selling”, “and Things that are getting thrown out”.   Dan took on the role of helping the kids while I started listing things on Craigslist.   It’s amazing when you go through your home once in a while the piles of stuff you find.   It’s amazing all the little doodad’s and trinkets that once seemed so valuable suddenly don’t.   Sometimes we can so worry about gaining all the stuff:   Like are these the right color for my couch, or did I get it on sale and could have gotten more off, or what if I give so and so another Christmas present they don’t like.   We get so caught up in collecting our Stuff that we forget; we can’t take this stuff into eternity with us.   One day on this earth all that will be left of us on the earth is the stuff of our lives.   I’m not about to say ...

  Several years ago I worked at a large department store for a few months part-time back in their information/help desk.   All in all it wasn’t a bad job and the only reason I left was because unbeknownst to me they couldn’t give me some time off for a trip that I already had plane tickets purchased.   I left on good terms.   As part of this job, the company wanted us to do the voiceovers/announcements for the store at regular intervals.   To all the rest of the staff in our tiny corner of the store this was like a punishment or pulling teeth to get them to do it.   There are times that my theatrical background kicks in and in this case it was like handing me candy.   I love to do voiceovers and I gladly took on the responsibility whenever I was there.   Immediately people who worked for the company starting to call up to our desk, or walk up to us, and ask who was doing the voiceovers.   It began to happen so much so that the de...

  I do not remember how young I was when this story happened.   I would guess I was probably somewhere between 10-14, but I’m not sure.   I have a bit of a flare for baking.   It’s not that I’m great at it, but give me a recipe and let me go.   Sometimes I enjoy it.   Yes, I confess I can be a ninja mom.   However for some reason on this particular day I decided I would make biscuits and I flatly refused to follow a recipe.   My dear sweet mother attempted to steer me in the right direction as I randomly grabbed cooking items off the shelf. Flour billowed in the kitchen with whatever else looked or smelled like it should go in the batch.   Surely I didn’t need any recipe.   I could do this on my own. What resulted that day was something my family and I still laugh hysterically about.   When the “biscuits” came out of the oven they were bad, really bad.   I started to cry.   My mother in feeling sympathy trie...

  In all my years of writing the blogs I do not remember if I’ve shared this story before or not, but as I was seeking God about what to write on today I kept thinking about this one.   When I was in college at The Ohio State University, I spent a lot of time in the Scenic Studio.   I was one of the few women I believe they actually ever hired up to that point.   It was probably because few girls wanted to work there, but I enjoyed it.   I got to help build the sets for the theatre shows and work with power tools so it was a win win for me.   It was my senior year and this freshman boy showed up to assist in the studio who obviously thought what I was doing was no place for a woman.   He’d pretty much said that to me.   The guy irritated me.   I shouldn’t have let it get to my head, but it did.   I wanted to prove to him that I could read a blueprint and wield an air powered nail gun with the rest of them.   I had used...

  Twelve years ago my parents, my oldest daughter (then an infant) and I were in a hotel room in Cocoa Beach, FL.   My mom and I had walked down to get breakfast, and when the spunky petite waitress announced that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.    It hadn’t occurred to me that America and our world was forever changed.   Honestly we didn’t understand the severity of what happened.   My mom and I finished out breakfast, and found my dad outside.   Together we made our way back to the room, and stayed there glued to the TV starring in horror for the better part of the day.   I was watching Tom Browkaw try to hold it together as the first tower fell, and then the second.   I watched in horror as we realized the Pentagon had been flown into and as the plane on the field was discovered.   Being there in that moment only minutes down the road from an Air Force Base, with my father who was a grunt soldier in Vietnam, wa...

Mojo our dog and I have struck up a bit of a battle.   I try to buy him a toy here and there, and I think he tries to see how quickly he can destroy it.   So far I have found only one toy he has yet to completely annihilate in under a day.   Yesterday I bought the toy he’s destroying here.   My oldest and I were at Wal-Mart.   The bin of Dog toys advertised a particular brand and how durable and indestructible their brand of dog toys was.   We looked deciding what he possibly couldn’t destroy and settled on one.   Mojo was excited when I brought it home.   He knew he had a new toy.   I think he had it torn to pieces in less than two hours.   I’ve already worded a nicely worded email to the company that if my 13 pound mini dauschaund can destroy their toy in less than two hours than perhaps it’s not as durable as they advertised.   Really Mojo is a good dog; for the most part he only does this to his own toys. Isn’t it irri...

  When I was in college at The Ohio State University, I spent a lot of time in the scene shop.   I got into props mastery and while I got my degree, that’s where most of my time, was spent.   Around Drake Union across from the infamous Horseshoe are these two decrepit and creepy looking buildings.   They’re not attached to the theatre department, but really just sit there separated and look kind of out of place.   Until I had to go through them I always thought they were some sort of electrical building.   I’m not sure their original purpose but now they are used as a prop’s warehouse for the theatre departments.   Piled to the brim in the buildings are left over large props and scenic pieces that have been left over from years’ worth of shows and performances.   Perhaps they’ve been cleaned out a bit in the 13 years since I saw them, but when I was there that’s was their purpose.   Going into these buildings were creepy!   I...

  I hope everyone had an awesome Labor Day weekend.   This weekend my family and a friend of my girls’ got to go out to Weikwa Springs, Florida.   I love Weikwa Springs.   We swam in the very cold water, went canoeing, and my oldest daughter and I went for a couple mile hike.   We had a great time.   I love canoeing, but as many of you know about me by now I really don’t like alligators; or any large animal with massive amounts of teeth.   Canoeing at Weikwa or anywhere in Florida for that matter requires a level of peace with nature.   There are gators out in those waters and if you are in them you have to accept that fact.   Having lived in Florida for almost 13 years now, I’m at the point where I am semi okay with them as long as I’m in the boat and they are not.   Call it out of sight out of mind.   I like to keep my distance. When we went canoeing we all agreed Dan would take the two younger girls in his canoe and m...