Archive for "Life"
2025 End of Year Recap
Posted on January 13, 2026 by Ching under Life.
Before we dive into the 2025 end of year recap, let’s catch you up on what happened last year…
I can’t even begin to summarize everything that happened in 2024. In the wake of all the health issues I was having in 2023, at the end of September 2024, Brian got diagnosed with Cancer. That was really the big bombshell of 2024 for us. I decided to lay off tournaments for the year, which helped us save a bunch of money, which in turn helped us pay off our house.
No sooner than we got our house paid off in August, Brian got his cancer diagnosis a month later. We were actually quite fortunate that we paid off our house in time because I don’t know how we would have managed dealing with everything if we still had to pay for our house on top of it.
Despite the bad news we got toward the end of the year, 2024 wasn’t all bad. I still played some pickleball, even though I was on a tournament sabbatical. One of my favorite events was the Chicken N Pickle KC vs ICT Ambassadors Showdown in Overland Park. That was a ton of fun. I also got to visit Tres Palapas Pickleball Resort in Mexico with some friends. And that was even more fun.
The year ended with a lot of uncertainty but Brian had some good doctors on his team and we had a good plan going into the new year.
Brian’s cancer diagnosis in late 2024 caused him to miss the Tres Palapas trip but he totally could have gone actually. Why? Because insurance didn’t approve his chemotherapy right away so treatments didn’t begin until after I got back from Mexico. I don’t think he really wanted to go on the trip so that wasn’t as much of a loss for him as it was for me because I really wanted to share the experience with him. Anyway, daily radiation treatments started mid-November and then his weekly chemotherapy began soon after. What we didn’t realize was that the chemo drugs would cause him to get so constipated that we had to make two fun trips to the ER. That was a scary experience but we also learned so much.
We were lucky that Brian’s cancer was discovered early enough that he only had to be in treatments for about three months. By the time Valentines Day rolled around, he was finished with both radiation and chemo. We spent the Valentines at the cancer center getting his PICC line removed.
One of the big spends we made last year was on a recliner. I never really thought we were recliner people but Brian really enjoyed sitting in them during his chemo so he decided he would like one for our house. We are now proud owners of a La-Z-Boy loveseat recliner.
The other big splurge of 2025 was our Alaska cruise. Brian wasn’t excited about it when I first booked the trip for us at the end of 2024 but I wanted to give him something to look forward to at the end of his treatments. The cancer treatments really did take a lot out of him. He got all the way down to 140 lbs at one point and really had no energy so it’s hard to feel excited about anything. However, once he got his feeding tube removed in April, he started eating normally again. He put on some weight and had more energy and he felt more excitement about our cruise at that point. We had the opportunity to visit several places in Alaska and Canada on this trip, including Juneau, AK; Skagway, AK; Fraser, BC; Endicott Arm Fjord (this was supposed to be Tracy Arm Fjord but the conditions weren’t conducive for cruising that fjord during the time of our trip — we got rerouted to Endicott Arm for safety reasons); Ketchikan, AK; and Victoria, BC. It was the trip of a lifetime and one that I wouldn’t mind doing again in a few years.
Between Alaska and the recliner, we didn’t have much left in the budget for other trips so we just did little road trips here and there the rest of the year. We drove to Dallas (Grapevine area) for our anniversary weekend (I wanted to check out the Meow Wolf in Grapevine). Returned the following month (Allen area this time) for the Chicken N Pickle ambassador event. And then drove to St. Louis for my birthday road trip (I wanted to check out the Chicken N Pickle in St. Charles). Honestly, road trips are a fun way to travel/vacation without spending a ton of money. We also get to bring Saki with us on these trips which is a huge plus.
Anyway, although my self-imposed pickleball tournament sabbatical was technically over, I didn’t get too crazy. I only played in a couple of leagues and a couple of tournaments. I also organized some events for National Pickleball Month. I ran a slew of IPN DUPR round robins (per usual) and helped with charity pickleball tournaments (mainly EPIC for the Wichita Children’s Home and Zach and Susie’s Miracles & Mentors Pickleball Tournament benefiting Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Youth Horizons).
That’s pretty much it for 2025 highlights. If you’re curious about previous years, here are some recaps…
I continued to play in pickleball tournaments but decided to focus more on local and regional ones. Aside from the US Open, USA Pickleball Nationals, one PPA tournament, and one APP tournament, most of my tournaments were local and within driving distance. It was an eventful year and I got to meet a ton of people from all over the world. Brian and I also had our first colonoscopies that year. He doesn’t have to go again for 10 years but I’m due back in 2028.
This year I played in pickleball tournaments all over the nation. I traveled to Florida a couple of times — played in my very first US Open in April and then played in the Diamond Amateur Championship in December. I also went to the opposite coast and played in USAP Newport Beach. This was the first year I won money at a pickleball tournament (WPT Kansas City Classic). Brian’s grandmother turned 100 and we attended Erica and Phillip Case’s wedding in Mexico. This was quite a year and my most expensive tournament year.
This is the year that I started traveling to pickleball tournaments and earned my first ever PPA tournament medal. I played in a bunch of tournaments including APP Delray Beach, Middle States Regional, Great Plains Regional, and some tournaments in Oklahoma City, Lenexa, and Great Bend. I also organized my first pickleball tournament.
COVID-19 happened. This was a super strange year. All the gyms were closed and we couldn’t leave our homes for nearly two months. I had a really rough time. Jenni also got married this year. And we managed to survive all year without getting sick until December when we both got COVID.
Probably the most significant thing to happen this year is that I went all-in with my pickleball obsession — started the Facebook group and even signed up for a lifetime membership to USA Pickleball. We also got to travel internationally twice — Costa Rica in April for Jay’s 40th birthday and Mexico in November for me and Becca’s birthdays.
There was a lot of Zumba this year. Not only did I attend the Zumba Instructor Convention (ZINCON) in Orlando but Brian and I also went on another Zumba cruise. I also picked up a side job teach Zumba classes at VASA Fitness. Brian and I did “Coffee Chats” on our FLIP + CHING page.
I hosted my first Zumbathon and raised money for Kansas Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Brian and I were inducted into the Society of 1865 at WSU. We attended a crap ton of parties and fundraising events. Brian helped design a Keeper of the Plains statue (that still exists today). We visited a couple of places that we’d never been — Alaska and Great Exuma.
Brian and I went on the first ever Zumba cruise where I met J. Perry (he sings many of my favorite Zumba songs) in person for the first time. I also got to meet Max Pizzolante at #ZINCON. I had the opportunity to tour Zumba Home Office. And I finally made the Wichita Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.
This year we hosted a Super Pi Day party. Brian and I completed Citizen Policy Academy. I visited New York for the first time. And we added a couple of new family members: Rex and Saki.
This was the year that I attended, not one, but two Zumba instructor conferences was definitely a highlight of the year. I was glad I had the opportunity to attend the 2014 Zumba Instructor Conference in LA because it was the very last one. Later that year I attended the 2014 Zumba Instructor Convention in Orlando. Other highlights include my short stint as a Stella & Dot personal stylist, getting our landscaping redone, returning to bowling, trips to San Diego (for work) and the Dominican Republic (for Brian’s 40th birthday), and having Molly rejoin our family. We were blessed with the opportunity to attend our favorite fundraising events: Labor Run, Zoobilee, Lights on the Lake, and Brew Ha-Ha. I completed Leadership Wichita (Class of 2014, baby!) and met some of the truly amazing people. I was also an Adventurous Babe for a year until I resumed being my normal boring self.
There was Cards for the Cure, a visit from the Orbases, a few appearances on Splurge! Mag, his and hers handguns, first time back at the Filipino ball, Leadership Elite, Brian’s parents’ 40th wedding anniversary, Cards Against Humanity, my first Zumba Instructor Convention (ZINCON), first trip to Minneapolis and Davenport, completed group exercise instructor training and started teaching Zumba for the Greater Wichita YMCA.
We attended a few weddings, most notably Cousin Tracy and Jeff’s destination wedding at Coral Cove Resort in Jamaica. I attended the Gina & Tanya Rock the Stage Tour. I got my Zumba Basic 1 License and I took Brian to Nashville for his 38th birthday. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by closing on our house and then I ended the year with a thyroidectomy.
We started the year by getting stranded at McCarran International Airport (Las Vegas). That didn’t deter us from traveling, though. We traveled through the East Coast with the Dills that summer and had a lot of firsts. We also got to see James Taylor perform twice: once at Intrust Bank Arena and again at Tanglewood. I also had my first ER trip and my first biopsy.
This is the year that we spent a lot of time with the Dills. It started out when we rang in the New Year at Kansas City Power & Light with Jay, Becca, and Mama Dill. A month later, we were traveling with them again. This time to San Francisco. Lots of traveling!
We had a lot of firsts this year. We attended Zoobilee for the first time. Brian had his first trip to Germany. He also visited the Philippines for the first time. I completed Leadership Westar. Tita Sol adopted Molly.
Brian started working for Viega. I completed my MBA from Wichita State University. And, we dealt cards on a cruise ship.
Brian was super into World of Warcraft around this time. I played some but knew instantly I would get addicted so I tried my best to stay away from it. Plus, all my time was consumed by grad school and my poker addiction. LOL. This year was our first major travel vacation since our honeymoon. We went to Couples Tower Isle in Jamaica and had our first nude beach experience.
This is the year I graduated from Wichita State with my Business Administration degree (Management Information Systems major and minors in Accounting and Management). Rewarded myself with my first brand new car (a 2006 Toyota Corolla we named Bebot) and a puppy. However, since I went straight into grad school to pursue my MBA (still at WSU), I was never home and Molly bonded with Brian more so than me. I was super into poker around this time and even Brian was starting to get into it too.
This year saw Brian through a couple of job changes. He first worked for Cox Communications and then later that year quit that job to start working for Engenio Technologies which later because LSI and then NetApp. We also got sugar gliders this year.
I officially became a naturalized US citizen, continued kicking butt at school, and after a couple of years as a customer service representative was promoted to supervise my team. This was a rough year for our marriage. Brian struggled with depression and was prescribed Zoloft which was super rough for our sex life. We pursued hobbies like poker (went from playing online to playing bar poker and playing in local tournaments), racquetball, chess, and blogging to get us through.
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I had originally dropped out of college in 2000 when my four-year scholarship money ran out. I decided I didn’t want to take out student loans. Anyway, I started working for my current employer in May 2002. After a year, I realized I was eligible for tuition reimbursement/assistance so this is the year that I went back to school. This is also the year that I discovered online poker. Brian also started our 24/7 live cam. |
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This is the year that Brian and I were married and the year that I started this blog.
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Reflecting on Another Year
Posted on December 24, 2025 by Ching under Life.
Brian kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday this year and I really couldn’t think of anything. I knew I did want to have some crab legs, though. As luck would have it, I found out about Rock & Brews Casino in Oklahoma from some friends who regularly go there. They have all-you-can-eat crab legs every Friday. So I told Brian my only wish for my birthday was to have some all-you-can-eat crab legs for my birthday and for him to go with us.
Oh, I almost forgot that I told Brian I wanted Whole Foods’ Berry Chantilly cake also and he delivered on that as well. The smallest one was still too big for me to finish by myself so I ended up sharing it with my friend Tom Grace who happened to be in town for the weekend.
Tom was in town for nails and drinks with me, Brian, and Chris Townley.
We hit the “Nightmare on Brew Street” Halloween pop-up at Nortons Brewing after our nail appointment. Their Halloween decorations were lackluster but the drinks and food at NBC are always fire.
The next morning, the four of us met for brunch at Homegrown.
Later in the month, Brian and I went on a road trip to Missouri to check out the Chicken N Pickle in St. Charles. Before that though, I also got to play at the Ellisville Missouri Pickleball Club location thanks to my friend Christie Pink.
She got her friends Monika and Monet to play with us. It was a blast!
Here are some pics of the St. Charles Chicken N Pickle. I’ve now officially visited 8 of the 13 existing Chicken N Pickle locations. It was super nice meeting fellow Chicken N Pickle ambassadors and actually being able to play in ambassador play because I hadn’t been able to make any of the ones in Wichita all year. Anyway, we had a great time and I look forward to checking out even more Chicken N Pickle locations in the coming year.
While in St. Louis, we also got to do some sight-seeing. We walked around down town and went up in the Arch. It didn’t quite live up to my expectations but we can now cross that experience off the list. LOL.
October was a fun month and Brian was super great at making all the things that I wanted to do during my birthday month happen. Here’s to another great year!
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September Activities Round Up
Posted on October 6, 2025 by Ching under Events, Life, Travel.
I met another one of the guys from the chess club, Austin. He was a good sport and tried pickleball after we played chess. Their regular weekly meetups, which I have yet to attend since I joined the chess group several years ago, are at the Delano Braums on Wednesday evenings, and the Advanced Learning Library on Sunday afternoons. A few of them have come out to check out TapNPaddles, though. I hope they can add Friday nights at Tap to the regular rotation.
I participated in a super exciting team-building activity with my workmates. Our afternoon began with volunteering at the Kansas Food Bank, happy hour at the Monarch, and we were to wrap up with a baseball game, which ended up getting canceled due to a hailstorm.
We ended up just hanging out in the suite until it was save to walk to our cars and head home. There were two storms that night. The others stayed but a few of us decided to take off during the intermission, aka the break between the two storms. Tom Grace came down from to Topeka and he walked from his hotel to the meet us at the Monarch so I ended up giving him a ride back to his hotel. Literally, no sooner than I dropped him off, it started hailing again. I could hear the hail hit the roof of my car as I was driving down Kellogg. I kept looking around me to see if there were holes because the hits were so loud. I was afraid (because it sounded like the hail could punch a hole through thick steel and could really hurt you if you got hit with it) but also secretly hoping I had some hail damage because I have a crack on my windshield that’s getting bigger by the day. I was hoping to get hail damage money and use it to replace the windshield. Brian checked my car after. Alas, no such luck. I guess I’m going to have to pay for my new windshield out of my own pocket. Currently a low priority so I’m putting it off.
Brian and I had tickets to the ballpark for the next day. It turned into a double header. They played both the game from the previous night and that night’s game back to back but reduced it to seven innings. We couldn’t take off work so we only went for the second part. The Dills (Becca and Jay) and the Huntees (Tina and Justin Huntington) met us there. It was great seeing Tina and Justin as we hadn’t seen them in ages.
Speaking of things we hadn’t seen or done in a while, we went to Zoobilee for the first time in a long time. Free tickets are kind of hard to pass up.
We went to Allen, Texas (DFW area) for a quick weekend getaway so I could participate in the Chicken N Pickle ambassador event. More on that later.
We went back to Chama Gaucha, which has quickly become one of our favorite places to eat down there.
Checked out a new restaurant in town that we had never been to yet. More on this later too.
Got a plant for work.
We celebrated the Wichita Pickleball Facebook group reaching the 4K members milestone with a special Friday night open play and a huge Friday Night Fiesta, one of the biggest ever!
We met up with some of our pals at Napoli to celebrate April Phelps’ birthday.
And, we completed some home projects. It was a productive month overall.
I’ll do a deep dive into some of the things that we did in September next so be sure to check back. Until next time!
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What Else Happened in July?
Posted on August 25, 2025 by Ching under Events, Life, Pickleball, Things to Do.
What else happened last month? Let’s see.
We made several trips to the ballpark, formerly Riverfront Stadium but now known as Equity Bank Park. Free tickets are the best! You can use the money you saved on their expensive drinks. LOL.
BTW, this awesome “Pickle Baller” ball cap is from my friend Carrie Soto. She gifted ball caps to several of us on her one year pickleversary. Isn’t that sweet?
Our friend, and fellow Chicken N Pickle ambassador, Laurie Adams came to visit and we took her to one of our most favorite restaurants, the Belmont. You’ll recognize this place from our social media because we’re here almost every week.
We had dinner with the Egans and Terneses at Public at the Brickyard and enjoyed the lovely tropical ambiance and decor of the Wild, their summer pop-up experience. Public does the best pop-ups!
We got a much-needed couples massage. Hit me up if you need the contact info of our massage therapists. They said they are open to taking new clients by referral.
We loved the Glass in Flight 2 exhibit at Botanica so much, we returned with our friend Chris Townley. I hope you all got a chance to see the traveling exhibit while it was in Wichita. If not, I created a video so you can at least see the awesome installations. Enjoy!
The Sobeks — father Rosti (left) and son William (right) — made another pit stop in Wichita during their summer pickleball academy and tournament road trip. A few local players were fortunate enough to meet and play with them at TapNPaddles.
I think that pretty much sums up our July. Come back next time for the August recap. Until then, I hope you’ve all had a great summer (despite the sweltering heat). Here’s to cooler days ahead!
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Another Rite of Passage Completed
Posted on April 18, 2025 by Ching under Life.
I’ve been a total slacker. Our new recliner was actually delivered over a month ago and we’ve been enjoying it ever since.
We had to rearrange our furniture to make room for it. The new recliner basically replaced the loveseat that was in front of the fireplace in our kitchen area. This space has evolved over the years. When we first moved in over 12 years ago, we just had a chair and a small ottoman in this space.
Not long after, we added a rug we found at Pier 1 Imports.
Because this space has the only fireplace in our house, it quickly became our favorite spot. In our first few years of living in this house, with all the areas you could possibly lounge in, we would fight over this one chair. When I say fight, it’s not really argue. Mostly we would try to beat each other to the chair. Often we would just resign into squeezing both of our asses in the chair. So much space in the entire house and both of us would be squeezed in this one chair. I think our only saving grace was that we were both still quite skinny back then.
Here’s the original configuration — we had the loveseat part in the living room and the chair in the kitchen area in front of the fireplace as shown in the above photo.
As of the end of 2020, we still had the single chair in that spot. However, I think the pandemic was the catalyst. We were spending a lot of time at home and we both wanted to sit in the same chair and, while we were making it work, it really wasn’t that comfortable.
We pulled the trigger at the beginning of the next year, and swapped the position of the loveseat and the chair. We could finally sit together in front of the fireplace!
Saki appreciated the change as well.
Our furniture has been in this configuration for the four years or so until Brian’s cancer treatments late last year. After spending a couple of months lounging in a comfy recliner during his chemo treatments, Brian decided he wanted one.
We shopped around a bit and then finally pulled the trigger last month but had to wait a couple of weeks for delivery. The night before we moved the loveseat to the living room with the rest of the furniture.
I was hesitant at first because I was worried that the living room would get too crowded but there’s actually enough space for everything, surprisingly.
I had always associated recliners with old people but I suppose we fall under this demographic now. Anyway, we’ve been enjoying this loveseat ever since and I can’t believe we waited so long to get one. It’s so comfy!
Even Saki loves it.
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