2018

Archive for the year 2018

Brynden’s First Zumba Class

Posted on January 5, 2018 by Ching under Zumba.

One of my newest Zumba friends recently completed Zumba Basic 1 training and got her license to teach Zumba. I was lucky enough to attend her very first class at La Selva MMA and Fitness in Derby.

Here are few pictures from her first class.

This is Brynden’s mom, Laurie.

We took a couple of group photos after class.

We celebrated her first class at Carlos O’Kelly’s after, which is our usual post-Zumba thing. I’m so glad I could be there for her first class and support her.

Brian and I recently discovered Stitch Fix and are now completely addicted. I first discovered it through one of my colleagues in Kansas City. She is petite like me and she was wearing this super cute long cardigan one day. I asked her where she got it and that’s when she told me about Stitch Fix.

She’s been on Stitch Fix for over a year now and she has been very pleased with the service. She said the stylists actually learn what you like and don’t like based on the feedback you provide after each delivery. They know her so well now that she usually likes almost everything they send her.

My main challenge has been that I don’t really have much time for shopping and find it time consuming to find things that fit me. When I do shop and buy things that I like, I usually have to get them tailored because they’re almost always too long. I was very impressed with the fact that they send her items according to her measurements so I was eager to give it a try. I wanted to see how well they could do with me after completing my styling survey and providing my measurements.

Here’s what they sent me in my first shipment.

I received two pants, two tops and a pair of earrings. I didn’t really need a new pair of earrings but the Maryln Schiff earrings they sent me are super cute and go with literally everything. I have been wearing them nonstop ever since I got them.

I was super impressed with the two pants they sent. Not only were the pants of great quality but they fit me amazingly well. I didn’t even need to get them hemmed. They were the perfect length.

The black skinny pants are by Liverpool and the maroonish skinny jeans are by Just Black. They both fit and feel amazing on but I have to say that the Liverpool pants are my favorite. They are, by far, the best, most comfortable pants I’ve ever owned.

I also loved the Collective Concepts blouse from this shipment. They go really well with the black Liverpool skinny pants. I have worn them several times since I got them. The only item in my box that I wasn’t too crazy about was the cold-shoulder blouse. It’s just too trendy for me and really isn’t my style. It also felt a little baggy. I just didn’t think it looked great on. I was thrilled with everything else though.

I loved my Stitch Fix experience so much that I talked Brian into joining. Here are a few pictures from his unboxing of his first ever Stitch Fix delivery.

The presentation is super nice. It really gets you excited to unbox what’s inside.

Here’s what Brian got in his second box.

If you don’t like to go to the mall or are otherwise too busy to shop, this service is absolutely perfect. Shipping and returns are free and they make it super simple with a postage paid bag that you can use to return any items you don’t want to keep. The catch is that there’s a $20 styling fee. They keep the fee if you don’t buy anything but you can use the $20 towards any items you purchase.

I personally think it’s a good deal.

I do have a special offer for you guys where you can try Stitch Fix at no risk. If you use this link then they will waive the $20 styling fee for your first box so you lose absolutely nothing even if you decide not to keep any items at all.

It is really neat and so we hope you guys decide to give Stitch Fix a try. It will completely revolutionize the way you shop for clothes.

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12 Class Challenge

Posted on January 3, 2018 by Ching under Life.

Every year the Greater Wichita YMCA incentivizes people to exercise and stay healthy throughout the holidays by holding a 12 Class Challenge program. Basically, you sign up for $10 and you get a card that has 12 boxes. After participating in a group exercise class, you have the instructor initial (or sign) and date a box. Once you have completed all 12 space, you turn your completed card in to the front desk of your local YMCA to redeem your awesome, limited edition 12 Class Challenge shirt. It’s really a brilliant program and is a huge hit every year.

Here’s a vintage video I found on YouTube of local realtor Kathy Ambrose, who does a great job of explaining the how the 12 Class Challenge program works.

The sign up cost was only $5 back when this video was made. The cost this past holiday season was $10 but that didn’t matter. It’s still as popular as ever. My students get a huge kick out of participating and completing their cards.

They are so enthusiastic about this program that I actually had two students complete their cards about a week into the program. The challenge officially started the week of Thanksgiving and by December 2, they were both done.

The only downside of finishing too soon is that sometimes the shirts haven’t arrived yet so you have to hang on to your card for a bit until the shirts are available. I believe that the shirts are available now so if you completed your 12 Class Challenge card then head on over to your local YMCA branch and grab yourself a shirt.

You earned it!

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Women’s Group Paining Night

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Ching under Things to Do.

Speaking of Paint the Towne, our women’s group at work had a Wichita flag painting night recently. Kelsey just happened to be in town for the evening and was able to join us.

Here are a few pictures of our fun group.

Getting ready to paint…

In progress works of art…

Another fun selfie…

Group photo…

Happy New Year, everyone!

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ICT Millennial Summit

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Ching under Events.

As part of the Wichita Business Journal‘s Emerging Leaders program, I had the opportunity to participate in a couple of really helpful training/conferences last month. The first one was Your Leadership Edge (formerly known as You. Lead. Now.) training through the Kansas Leadership Center.

I was also invited to attend the first ever ICT Millennial Summit. Now, we all know that I’m not a millennial — I just act like one sometimes. I think it’s because I’m friends with so many young people.

When the term was first coined decades ago, the years weren’t as clearly defined and I was kind of in that gray area where Gen X ends and Gen Y starts. Today, almost everyone agrees that the starting year for Gen Y is 1981.

The interesting thing about me is that I can relate more to boomers and millennials than I can to my own generational group because of my work ethic and behaviors. However, I’m kind of stuck in no man’s land because the boomers often think I’m a millennial and the millennials think I’m ancient. LOL.

Anyway, being the joiner that I am with serious FOMO issues, I thought I better check out this summit. I mean, they invited me to attend and everything. If there was going to be valuable information disseminated and knowledge to be had, I wasn’t about to miss out on any of it.

The package that the conference credentials arrived in set the tone.

The box itself was a keepsake. I have never received materials quite like this before.

The only other thing better that I’ve received is the Home for Doc gala invitation.

The event was held at Distillery 244, a really neat event space in the heart of Old Town. I’d never been there before so that in itself was enticing.

Here’s the agenda for the event. Nothing too exciting but I didn’t know what topics would be covered until long after I’d already signed up.

Being a completely debt-free home owner with no car payments who sets an annual budget that gets revisited halfway through the year, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the breakout session topics for the first day. I still managed to pick up a few things though, particularly in the area of investing. I’m a pretty aggressive saver in terms of my 401K so by October my take home pay actually increases substantially since I’ve maxed out the amount that I can contribute to my 401K by that point. I’ve just been taking it for granted and we usually just either spend the extra money on holiday stuff or BS and, if we’re lucky, there’s a bit left to move to savings after all is said and done. We’ve never been as purposeful about it because it’s never been part of our plan.

The first year it came as a surprise but it’s something that has happened consistently since so this year I’m thinking we should plan for it accordingly. I’m thinking that instead of spending it or just allowing that extra income to vanish into thin air we should set a specific amount aside each paycheck and then invest it at the end of the year. Who knows how much better off we’d be today had we been more strategic about investing from the get go?

Brian and I are doing pretty well financially for our age. I think we make really good choices and have developed responsible spending habits but you always want to learn more and get better. I think the better than we do for ourselves, the more that we can give back to the community and make others’ lives better.

In looking at the agenda, I was definitely more interested in the breakout topics of the second day. Still having been in the workforce for over two decades, none of the information was completely earth shattering. The one thing that I came away with is the thought that the young people of today are so lucky to have events and conferences like this summit. I was thinking that I have all this knowledge now but I had to learn it as I went. Brian and I had to learn by making mistakes and digging ourselves out of the mess. It would have been really nice if there was something like this summit for me to attend when I was in my 20s. Maybe we would have been able to avoid some of the suffering that we had to go through.

I found the summit helpful but I think it would have been even more helpful to me if I were someone in my 20s just starting my career. The summit lived up to its name. It’s definitely targeted toward millennials. I think all young people should go through it and so I’ve recommended it to our young professionals group at work.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the summit.

We had the privilege of hearing Mayor Jeff Longwell speak.

Jeff Fluhr talked about the Greater Wichita Partnership and all of the great things that have happened and will be coming up for our city.

These are exciting times for our wonderful city.

Listened to an awesome keynote from Warren Martin.

One of his key points is that problems are a good thing. Problems help us learn and grow. Problems help us build character. I tend to agree. Brian and I wouldn’t be the people we are today if it weren’t for the challenges that we’ve had to overcome early in our marriage. Our experiences shaped the people we’ve become.

Here’s a short clip I found on YouTube of him talking about problems.

Mr. Martin was one of the mentors for the second day and talked to us about communication during one of the breakouts.

He also shared with us his formula/model for writing any kind of speech, talk, or presentation. It’s so brilliant, I wish I would’ve thought of it.

One of my favorite parts of attending the summit is that it gave me an opportunity to reconnect with friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

Raquel Reyes (above) and Jennifer Cole (below).

I ran into Joe Parten (Carrabba’s) who was the lunch sponsor for the first day.

I also connected with Jessie Sterling, owner of Paint the Towne.

She facilitated the flag painting “make and take” activity that we did at the end of the first day which was super fun.

Here’s a group photo that we took at the end of that first day.

On the second day, our table groups were tasked with creating a front page layout for WBJ in 2025. We had some really creative and brilliant minds on our team so guess what – we won.

Here’s our official group photo (above). From left: me, Jennifer Rost, Whitney Feltrop, Erica Brock, Sam Belsan, Christina Santiago, Erica Thomas, Raquel Reyes, and Josh Beckman.

This one is just a fun selfie we took with our winning poster.

At the end of the summit, I stuck around for a bit to visit with these amazing women. It was a really fun couple of days. The experience was truly worthwhile. I’m glad I got to participate in it.

You can read more about the ICT Millennial Summit in this WBJ article here and watch the highlight video below: