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Birthdays Galore

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Ching under Events, Family.

We had multiple birthdays this past weekend.

Madison’s birthday cookout was our first stop on Friday night.

On Saturday night we had Logan’s birthday first, followed by Misty’s birthday. Don’t let the picture on the cake fool you. Logan turned 13 today. They used an old picture of him for the cake.

Can you believe the woman above birthed Logan 16 years ago?

My favorite part of parties at mom’s house is the abundance of Filipino food. This is Filipino-style pork barbecue.

Next we have chicken and pork adobo.

Lumpia.

Pancit.

Pancit palabok.

Macaroni salad.

Leche flan.

Buko salad.

Biko.

My makulit sister.

Me and Brian.

We didn’t stay long at Logan’s birthday because we also committed to attending Misty’s 40th birthday at Ernie Biggs. Here’s a picture of Lindsay and Misty.

Cari was there too.

Ernie Biggs has been around for a few years now but it was actually our first time there. It’s a great place for celebrating special occasions. We had a great time celebrating Misty’s birthday.

Now that we’ve made it through the multiple birthday weekend, we’re gearing up for another busy weekend. Holly and Meader get married on Saturday. Hurrah! We are super excited for them.

Brian’s parents were in town a couple of weeks ago to celebrate Father’s Day, Brian’s birthday, and grandma’s birthday – in keeping with the tradition of celebrating all three events together. Brian’s brother Kevin and his son Andy joined us for dinner as well.

Here are some pictures…

David, Donna, and Andy

Grandma, Donna, and David

Three generations of Brubakers: David, Kevin, Brian, and Andy

Brian, Ching, and Grandma

Grandma got a neat, musical, pop-up card.

Brian got a new Star Wars doormat. They don’t sell this exact one on Amazon but, if you would like one for yourself, here’s a link to some doormat options.

I’m not a huge fan of Longhorn, which is why I didn’t take any food pictures. The food there is good but nothing to write home about. It’s very much like most other steakhouses.

Anyway, I wasn’t planning on taking any food pictures at all until dessert came out. This plate of sugar and carbs was so magnificent I couldn’t help but take a picture (see below). It’s large enough to feed a small village. And, it tasted even better than it looks. Brian and I agreed that we will have to return just for dessert. Chocolate stampede, indeed!

Brian also really likes their brew pub pretzel sticks. He loves pretzels and cheese so it’s right up his alley. The amazing dessert wins it for me.

We had a wonderful time celebrating with family. Here’s to another memorable year!

NOTE TO GRANDMA: I printed all the pictures for you. I just need to get Brian to deliver them. 😉

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Old Town Rotary Map Project and Feeling Grateful

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Ching under Community, Events, Family, Things to Do.

Brian and I got to help with our first Rotary map project over the weekend. Well, Brian got tricked into helping and I wasn’t going to go at first. I didn’t find out about the project that Misty’s Rotary Club (Rotary Club of Old Town Wichita) was working on until the day before. I told her that I was teaching Zumba that morning and couldn’t make it. I really wanted to help but my Zumba class fell right in the middle of the time we were supposed to be be painting. She said they would start at 9 AM and, since Prairie Creek Elementary is right across from the YMCA branch that I teach Zumba at on Saturday mornings, Misty somehow managed to convince me to help. I figured I could go right before my class and then come back to continue helping right after class.

Brian was initially going to just stay home and do house chores while I went to help with the map project and teach my Zumba class. However, I managed to talk him into “dropping me off” at the school. I told him that he could “drop me off” and then I could just walk across the street to the YMCA when it was time for class. I also bribed him with Scooter’s Coffee, which he couldn’t refuse.

Because we are sickeningly punctual, we arrived at the school right at 9 AM. There were only a couple of people there. I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough people to help and so I asked Brian, who was only supposed to “drop me off” at the site, to stay and help us. A good number of people showed up to help a little bit later that morning so Brian probably didn’t even need to stay. I think he was glad he stayed though, because the painting project was right up his alley. He’d be reluctant to admit it, but I would venture to say that he actually had fun. Besides that, doing volunteer work every once in a while (despite being tricked into doing it) is good for the soul.

Even though we started late, they made good progress while I was in Zumba class. By the time I walked back to the project site, they were almost completely done. Here are some pictures of our map painting adventure…

Getting the map template to stay down was kind of tricky because of the wind. Lucky for us, we had a few people who worked on these map projects before so they were pros. They knew exactly what to do and were prepared with milk jugs filled with water to line the perimeter of the template and keep it from blowing away.

With the template down, we had to chalk all of the holes. This would leave dots that would serve as an outline for us to follow for painting the map.

Based on experience, they knew that the East Coast would be tricky so those lines had to be drawn before removing the plastic completely.

Lots of going back and forth between the ground and template happened to check and double check that the lines were drawn properly and no states were missed.

It’s not difficult to mess it up because the East Coast consists of a bunch of tiny states.

The lakes are also tricky so those lines had to be drawn before removing the template as well. The template tried to fly away a few times but we managed to hold it down long enough to get all the tricky parts out of the way.

After the lines were drawn the rest of it was cake.

When I returned from my Zumba class, we had way more volunteers than paint brushes.

Having lots of people there to help paint made painting the map go quickly.

The map was complete before long. It just needed a few touch ups to make the lines more crisp and the colors pop.

Another cool thing about last Saturday was meeting Andrea and Donovan’s handsome dog Tank for the first time.

They live right by the school so it wasn’t a long walk.

Tank is a bit of a ham as you can tell. LOL.

Anyway, last Saturday reminded me of how truly lucky I am to have Brian in my life. I have often complained about not being able to be at two places at once so, even though I want to participate in everything, sometimes I just have to pick and choose and then I feel bad for having to say no to people or missing out. Well, with Brian’s help, I can be at two places at once. I really wanted to participate and help with the map project but I knew I couldn’t be there the entire time. Brian was there to help when I couldn’t be and they actually got an upgrade because Brian is far more talented at that stuff than I am.

Today, it was much the same. I had multiple things that I wanted to do: attend my friend Cari’s party, spend time with Nickira, participate in Zumba in the Square, and get some yummy dinner from the Kamayan Truck. Brian helped me so I could do it all.

I made an appearance at Cari’s party before picking up Nickira from her house. We went home so I could change into workout clothes and pick Brian up. Brian dropped Nickira and I off at the Zumba in the Square event while he went to pick up dinner from the food truck event. We got to enjoy a delicious dinner and then had ice cream for dessert at Churn & Burn after.

As an added bonus, I even got to spend time with my mom. Dad dropped her off at the Zumba thing so she got to hang out with us the rest of the evening and we gave her a ride home. She went with us for ice cream after Zumba and then to drop off Nickira back at her house. Then it was mom’s turn to be dropped off.

Double bonus, I got to see dad as well because we stayed a little while to check out dad’s basement project when we dropped mom off. Anyway, I am super blessed to have such a loving, supportive husband without whom I couldn’t possibly do everything I want to do. Thank you for being awesome, baby! You make my life – correction, our life – great!

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Christmas Day Recap

Posted on January 16, 2016 by Ching under Family.

Our family had a nice time celebrating Christmas Day at our house. Grandma spent the night so we didn’t have to get her first thing in the morning. David and Donna came up for the Christmas holiday so they went to pick grandma up on Christmas Eve.

Grandma met Saki for the first time on Christmas Day.

Both of the girls got special presents, handcrafted by Donna.

This is the present that we received from my half-sister who lives in New Jersey. We received them a few days before but wanted to wait until Christmas Day to open the presents because the packages looked so good under the tree.

She sent us his and hers mugs with our initials.

We experienced a Christmas miracle: a rare moment of Saki and Molly not fighting. It was short-lived, though. Within seconds they were not getting along again.

This isn’t a gag gift. Grandma specifically asked for fruit cake.

She also asked for flavored popcorn.

So we got some for her.

She didn’t ask for these cookies but we know that she loves them so we try to get some for her every year.

David and Donna also got grandma a basket full of goodies.

Grandma always gets lots of food items at Christmas time.

Donna asked for these Rachel Ray cooking utensils.

We try to follow instructions. LOL.

She also wanted coloring books. So we got her several different kinds. This is one of the books we got her.

We followed instructions except for the colored pencils. Donna had a different brand on her list but Brian insisted that we get Prismacolor because they’re of better quality.

David mostly just wanted tools.

All of the presents we got him this year came from Harbor Freight.

Brian got this hoodie, which he absolutely loves.

He wears it everyday.

He also got a monogrammed tie, which he loves.

He doesn’t wear it everyday but he has worn it a few times since Christmas.

His favorite present of all is his new bowling bag. Up until now, he’d been using his grandfather’s old bag.

Now he has his very own, and it matches his shoes and bowling ball.

Brian, David, and I all got one of these lighted beanies.

They’re going to be great for walking the dogs at night or before sunrise.

I got some She & Him CDs from David and Donna.

Saki was my Christmas present from Brian. 🙂

We had a great time celebrating Christmas with the Brubakers. These are just some of the highlights. Click here for more Christmas Day photos.

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Christmas Eve Recap

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Ching under Family.

I just realized that I never posted the photos we took over Christmas. Here are some highlights from Christmas Eve.

We got dad some new Zumba sweatpants and a gift card to Lowe’s since he’s currently remodeling the basement. He’s actually used his gift card already so that worked out really well.

I really didn’t know what to get mom because she already has everything and never asks for anything. I decided to get her the Zumba Gold box set. She was super thrilled and has been using it at home since her favorite Zumba class is on hold until February.

I got Jenni a Passion Planner. That was a no-brainer.

Brian and I got these super soft throw blankets for Christmas last year (Brian got a blue one and I got a cream colored one) and we loved them so much that we decided to get Matt and Jen their own. We figured brown was a safe bet.

Logan just wanted cash again. We decided to make him work for it this year so we put the money in smaller wrapped presents inside another wrapped box inside another wrapped box. I noticed he wasn’t so excited about the present at first.

I don’t think he realized what he was getting until the boxes got smaller. Once he realized he was getting cash, he got pretty excited.

Eli always has some odd requests. One year he wanted a stick vac. Another year he wanted an electric pencil sharpener. This year he wanted a clock that makes relaxation sounds. Brian picked out a really cool one that, in addition to making several nature sounds, projects time on the wall or ceiling.