Archive for "Pickleball"
A Pickleball Christmas Movie Night
Posted on January 22, 2026 by Ching under Pickleball.
I joined the some fun pickleball ladies for a movie night a couple of weeks ago. We watched A Pickleball Christmas. The movie itself wasn’t too bad the pickleball was completely atrocious. LOL.
We made a drinking game out of it.
Here are a couple of pictures from that night.
Even though this was after Christmas, we decided to wear our Christmas jammies since we were watching a Christmas movie.
The movie isn’t great and the pickleball is awful but I still highly recommend this movie. Grab your pickleball pals and make a night of it.
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Bonus Pickleball to End the Year
Posted on January 15, 2026 by Ching under Pickleball.
This year Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve both fell on a Wednesday. The YMCA usually closes early on these days to give staff time to celebrate with loved-ones. That meant I didn’t have my regular Wednesday night Zumba class the final two weeks of the year. Naturally, I wanted to take advantage of this freedom.
On Christmas Eve, I teamed up with fellow Chicken N Pickle ambassadors Lena Quach, Huyen Nguyen, and Fong Witte to use our free court time one last time in 2025. We played from 3 PM to 5 PM using mine and Fong’s codes. We were supposed to be at mom and dad’s by 5 PM on Christmas Eve and we ended up not getting there until 5:45-ish but it was totally worth it. I don’t ever get to play much pickleball anymore, let alone a great group such as this one. It was the best gift I could have given myself for Christmas.
I decided to double dip on NYE and played at both TapNPaddles (with Carrie Soto’s group) and also Chicken N Pickle. Carrie runs a ladies only point play at Tap on Wednesday, which I can never attend because of my Zumba class. I was so happy that I was finally able to join one to close out the year.
After that, I was off to Chicken N Pickle to meet fellow ambassadors Ryan Kellenbarger, Fong Witte, Kendra Wicks, and Colby Fugit. We had some fun play but mostly just wanted to keep Kendra company because she had to work that night. I honestly could not have asked for a better way to end the year. Here’s to even more fun pickleball with friends in 2026!
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A Couple of Pickleball Tourneys to End the Year
Posted on January 6, 2026 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
I closed out the year by playing in a couple of fun pickleball tournaments at Chicken N Pickle and also helping my friends Zach Nguyen and Susie Ternes with their first Miracles and Mentors Pickleball Tournament benefiting Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Youth Horizons.
Matt Rochat and I played in the Friendsgiving Tournament as Smash Ching Pumpkins.
Bo Tolbert and I played in the Ugly Sweater Pickleball Tournament as Tolbert and Erne.
Teamed up with Zach Nguyen and Susie Ternes to host the first ever Miracles and Mentors Pickleball Tournament, which Susie ended up winning (LOL) along with her partner Jordan Sparks.
Jamie Lynch and Krysta Crawford took second. Sarah Berry and Fernando Martinez took third.
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The winners of the recreational group were as follows:
- 1st – Janelle Lindeman and Devin Hansen
- 2nd – Scott Knox and Karen Fox
- 3rd – Evelina Le and Justin Kongmanychanh
It was a great turnout for a first fundraising tournament and I think everyone had a great time. We may have to do this again next year.
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Birthday Festivities
Posted on December 30, 2025 by Ching under Events, Pickleball.
I thought by leaving town the weekend before my birthday I would get out of birthday festivities. I just don’t like when people make a fuss. It makes me feel bad. However, Dawn texted with me while we were in St. Louis and she insisted on hosting a birthday get together at TapNPaddles. I was a reluctant participant but it was very thoughtful of her and I appreciated it.
Here are some fun pics from that day.
Pic with Cindy and Joe Witte. My US Open travel pals.
Picture with my good friend Ryan Kellenbarger. This isn’t his first appearance on the blog. I think he made his debut as early as 2021. We’ve done quite a few things together over the years.
Picture with James Pham who I met for the first time a couple of months ago in open play. He just happened to be at Tap at the same time as my birthday pickle so he got to celebrate with us.
With Cindy Witte and Fong Witte — no relation. Actually, Cindy pronounces her last name as “Witty” and Fong pronounces her last name as “Wit” so same spelling but totally different.
With Keith Lietzke and Chris Wilson.
With Jeanette Santo, Janelle Lindeman, and Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance.
With Chandi Bongers.
With Jeanette, Monica McGehee, and Chandi.
Two of our favorite girls — Huyen Nguyen and Hannah Wesolowski. They’re so fun!
With Uyen Dang, Hannah, Senda Vu, Fong, and Tiffany.
Jeanette, Dawn Hazlewood (she’s the one who orchestrated the whole thing), and Karen Fox.
Brian with Dawn.
Me with Sandi Dobbs.
Jeanette, Sandi, and Chandi.
With Dawn and Trung Ho-Nguyen.
As much as I don’t like to make a thing of my birthday, it was nice being able to see and play with everyone.
Dawn is the best birthday pickle organizer!
She even got me a fun cake!
But I also brought cake for everyone to try. I’m weirdo who brings cake to her own birthday celebration. Anyway, the funny story about this cake is that it has been showing up on my social media feed for over a year and I’ve been dying to try it but there’s no way I could eat the entire cake by myself — not even with Brian’s help. So, when Dawn decided she was hosting a birthday pickleball party for me, I rush ordered the cake so that it would arrive in time. This was the perfect excuse for me to try and it wouldn’t go to waste because several people would be helping me eat it.
Before the birthday pickleball party on Sunday afternoon, Susie and Grant Ternes had invited us to dinner at Bella Vita. This was our first time back since they moved to their new location. It was lovely dinner but I started to get a headache.
After dinner with the amazing Terneses, Brian and I went to Barleycorn’s to watch Grandma the Band perform. I had promised our friend Kyle Starkel that we would go. Although, we contemplated not going because my headache was getting worse. I didn’t want to go back on my word though because I had bailed on coming to his band perform a few times before.
It was fun seeing Kyle in his element.
The next day, my headache was still in full force but I couldn’t bail on the pickleball party because they were having it for me. I just had to suck it up. I’m glad I did though, because it was wonderful celebrating with everyone.
That’s my post-birthday weekend in a nutshell. I feel like I got to do everything I wanted to do during my birthday and then some.
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Halloween Pickleball at the Park
Posted on December 29, 2025 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Halloween fell on a Friday this year; however, since TapNPaddles closed early that day, we ended up gathering at Seneca Park, our old pickleball stomping grounds. It’s probably been almost two years since I last played at Seneca. Now that we have many indoor options, people are mostly playing inside rather than at the public parks. I really don’t know who play regularly at Seneca park anymore. The nets look dilapidated and the courts were full of debris. I think it was different when we were playing there regularly because the players would regularly sweep the courts or bring their leaf blowers and stuff. Though the courts looked largely neglected, it was still a great place to gather on Halloween night — at least until sunset because there are no court lights at Seneca Park.
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