Anna M. Aquino

            When I was a kid we would typically travel down to Florida from Ohio once a summer to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins.  One of these trips when I was probably around the age of 10 we visited the water park Buccaneer Bay in Tampa.  They had advertised for the newest, tallest, and fastest waterslide.  I have always been a bit of a ‘dare devil’. Call me fearless. I thrive on these kinds of things and was very excited when my uncle volunteered to take my cousin and me to go on the slide.  I don’t remember what the slide is called but I do remember it was tall, and was a close to vertical drop straight down.              I remember waiting in line for what seemed to be forever, so when we finally arrived on the top of the platform we were all ready to jump in the slide.  When the lifeguard told me that it was my turn I jumped into th...

            This weekend was the first time we were able to travel up to Canada to visit my in-laws since moving.  We were only gone for a day and a half but we were so glad to be able to visit.  It’s a nice change to be a short three hour drive from them.   Over the years that I’ve traveled back and forth over the Canadian American border, we’ve collected our share of funny stories.  But the one last night may be up there with my top few.  The funny thing is that I was thinking right before we crossed back into the US that we hadn’t had any major hiccup this time, I thought too soon.             It was raining hard yesterday in Windsor and I thought that it would be a better idea to take the tunnel back to the US.  This border gives two options either a tunnel or a bridge and somehow hanging high suspended in the air as I could see li...

If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you’ll know that most of the time you’ll receive teaching blogs as encouragement and sometimes humor.  But once in a while I tend to jump into the puddles of current events and issues in America.  I feel that people need to be outspoken in their faith and beliefs as to how they relate to this nation.  Unfortunately is the failure to speak up is what has wounded the foundation of what I believe has made this country great.  So in saying all of that I am going to dance in the rain of a current hot topic for today’s blog.  While I respect both sides of this issue, I do have a strong opinion regarding it. Growing up in a small Mid-West American town, I had no idea what it took to come to this country as an immigrant.  I had no idea of the hurdles people had to jump through in order to become a citizen.  That was until I met and married my husband.  My husband’s family emigrated from Italy to ...

Anytime you move it requires a list of new hurdles you have to jump through.  We are still adjusting to our new surroundings.  Because we will probably be purchasing two new-to-us cars within the next year, and we just renewed our FL tags on our SUV, I had no intention of changing our plates to OH plates until we traded it in. On Friday I received a letter in the mail stating that if we didn’t get FL car insurance or return our license plates in 10 days Dan would lose his drivers license and get a $150 fine.  I guess the BMV doesn’t like it if your insurance is in one state and your tags are in another.  This lesson has been learned in this family.  On Saturday morning Dan and I headed for the OH BMV to get all of this straightened out.  It was a pretty smooth process, but that isn’t always the case.  When we finally got the plates we realized that we need to put one on in the front in OH.  Dan, who was overly tired from the work week befor...

Five years ago, when I first heard the song “The Words I Would Say” by the Sidewalk Prophets it was about the time my dear late Pastor (Pastor Arthur) moved in with Jesus. Here’s the link if you’ve never heard the song http://youtu.be/8t9u-LOa3OI  Every time I hear it, I hear it as if he was giving me the same advice as in the song.  I was thinking about this lately, and thinking about some of the large decisions that Dan and I have made both now and in our past.  I gave my life to the Lord when I was in the 3 rd grade.  That was 27 years ago.  God called me in ministry when I was in the 7 th grade which was 23 years ago.  I think that warrants me to have been around the things of God for a bit, and having said that learned some lessons along the way.  I haven’t arrived, but learned a bit.  I wanted to add some of my own points. 1)       When God tells you to do something, just do it.   Don’t overanalyze it...

            When I was a little girl I was notorious for thinking the world stopped on my birthday.  Really, in my mind, it should be a national holiday.  Perhaps one day it will be in the future (Grin).  I used to think that it should be one big day of party for me and my special day. I thought everyone I knew and love should stop what they were doing and throw a parade for me equipped with parades of helium balloons and giant cakes with people popping out of them. I remember however the day that all changed.  It was the year that my oldest daughter was born.  Her birthday is just a few days before mine.  I didn’t get a birthday cake and a serenade until much later that year.  I think Dan and I had gotten into a small argument, and most of our energy was spent on trying to be young parents.  It’s amazing how having children humbled me quickly.       ...

            Recently I was approached to do a small project.  At first the whole thing seemed a tad intimidating to me.  Self-doubt seemed to be raging in my mind, and I was struggling to remind myself that ‘that I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.’ (Philippians 4:13)  However the more I thought about the project the more I began to realize that I’ve done very similar things before now.  Even though this particular project seemed like such a big ordeal, really I had been prepared.   I can go through several instances in my life that trained me for this project.  Once I started working on the project, it went smoother than I thought it might.  I realized it really was true that God had made me ready for this.             I think our minds over exaggerate circumstances.  We hear a list of worries and self-doub...

            As most of you reading this probably know, my family just relocated across the country.  While I did grow up in some of the areas I have been in, many places are new.  When one goes through a major change like this, it can and does take time to get used to the new way of doing things, traveling roads, etc. etc.             Last week I had to be at an appointment an hour from where we are currently staying.  I gave myself an extra 25 minutes just in case. I ran into traffic and confess I started to panic just a tad.  I do not do late.  In my mind late is only 5 minutes early.  I knew that I could bypass most of the traffic by turning down a road that I know I could go down but I wasn’t overly sure how I could get to where I was going from there.  I started to really question changing my course.   I wasn’t sure I coul...

            As many of you know I am a self-proclaimed history dork/junkie.  (Grin)  In light of the fact America is getting ready to celebrate another birthday; I thought I’d step up on my soap box for a moment.              On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed establishing America would be separated from England.  The pilgrims came to America to get away from religious persecution going on in England.  I realize that many history books that are being printed today have tried to take this fact out of the books, but truthfully America was in fact founded on the Bible.  People try to toot the notion of ‘separation of church and state’.  But the concept wasn’t formed to kick any form of God out of the government, but to limit the governments control on what religious practices a person would adhere.  Meaning, a p...