Archive for "Life"
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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We Found the One
Posted on March 3, 2025 by Ching under Life.
Thank you to everyone who recommended looking at La-Z-Boy for recliners. We went there after breakfast this weekend at HomeGrown and actually found one that we both liked. I never really thought Brian and I would be purchasing a recliner at this stage in life. I have always associated recliners with grandparents and old people general. I have never thought of myself as “old” (except when I wake up in the morning and can barely move) but I guess we kind of fit that demographic now.
We had a recliner back in the day, when we lived at our old house. I think it might have come from either Brian’s parents or grandparents. I didn’t think people actually bought recliners. I always just assumed it was something that you got handed down to you from older relatives. I supposed when you are old and, there’s no one to hand one down to you, then you would theoretically buy one but I honestly didn’t think we were there at that stage of life yet.
The cats (we used to have three cats 20 years ago) and I spent quite a lot of time in that chair and I found it very comfortable but I never thought we would actually buy one. At least until much later in life and I didn’t think we were “that” old yet. Well, maybe Brian is. He is over 50 now after all. Although, I think the real catalyst was all the time he spent sitting (and napping) in a recliner during his cancer treatment. The comfy recliners at the cancer center have ruined him from sitting in a normal chair for good.
We looked online some and went to the Ashley showroom that is by our house one weekend. We didn’t really see anything we absolutely loved. Fast forward to this past Saturday. We found a loveseat recliner that checks all the boxes (and then some) and it didn’t cost $5,000 so, after some deliberation, we decided to go ahead and pull the trigger. Tell you what. Brian is sooo excited!
I am excited because it’s a loveseat without cup holders in the middle to keep us apart, so we can recline and snuggle up together. Stay tuned for pics for when it’s finally delivered!
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Winter 2025
Posted on February 19, 2025 by Ching under Life.
I’ve never been a huge fan of winter and that’s even more true this year. This is probably one of the more eventful winters we’ve had. Eventful in all ways — good and bad. Brian was diagnosed with cancer in fall and so he was in cancer treatment most of the winter. It’s not fun any other time and when the roads aren’t great, that makes it worse.
Christmas was pretty subdued this year. I didn’t even bother decorating. Brian was very weak and bringing the Christmas tree up from the basement (and decorating it) is a two-person job. I didn’t want to ask Brian to help me because of his physical condition, and I had no desire to do everything by myself, so we just went without our tree and Christmas decorations. It’s not the first time we’ve have not put up a Christmas tree (because it’s so much work) but it is the first time that we’ve gone completely without Christmas decorations. In other years, we will usually put all of wreaths and Christmas lights up and display all of our Christmas knickknacks even though we’re not putting up a Christmas tree.
Not having any decorations at all made for a less festive holiday but it was fine. Brian’s parents came up from Oklahoma and we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together. It was fine. All you really need is family. And, for me, as long as Brian and I are together, all is right in the world.
Brian and I were pretty much cooped up at home for most of the winter season. I went to work like normal but I also went with Brian to as many of his appointments as I could. I had cut back on a lot of extracurricular activities so I was home with him every night except on Wednesdays when I teach my Zumba class. Brian really likes it when we sit in front of the fire and I rub his feet and legs.
Anyway, my friend Cindy Egan invited me to play pickleball one night after work. After being cooped up at home for many weeks, Brian encouraged me to go. Honestly, it was a nice break from what had become our normal evening routine. We were only forecasted to get 1-3 inches of snow that night but it was actually much worse than expected. I ended up driving my car into a ditch on K96 on my way home. I had promised Brian I would only be gone for about two hours and I ended up being gone for much longer because I had to wait for a tow truck. You can watch the video I made of that little adventure here.
The 20-minute drive home turned out to be three hours that night but I was grateful that (a) I was able to get a tow truck to come, and (b) I eventually made it home safely. On the bright side, I took home food from Cindy that night and her mashed potatoes and meatballs were amazing. Brian couldn’t eat so I pretty much ate all of it. Our friends have been so wonderful throughout this journey. I had to ask them to stop giving us food because Brian couldn’t eat anyway and there was always way more food than I could eat by myself. But I am ever so grateful — for the food, the donations, the hugs, the thoughts, the prayers, everything.
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Not Your Typical Valentines Day
Posted on February 18, 2025 by Ching under Life.
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Brian’s followup appointment with Dr. Chris Dakhil happened to fall on Valentines Day. I went with him to it and also his IV hydration treatment immediately following. It’s not really how anyone would want to celebrate Valentines Day but it was a great day overall. He got his PICC line removed finally! He has recently started eating a little bit. He still heavily relies on his feeding tube but we are hoping that once he is mostly eating by mouth then he can get the feeding tube removed as well. We are both looking forward to that day. I think he is so ready to put all this behind him. |
One the feeding tube is out and it is safe to do so, we are celebrating with a couples massage. In the meantime, we are just taking it one step and day at a time.
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