FLIP + CHING

2019 Cattle Baron’s Ball

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Ching under Events.

Here are some pictures from the Cattle Baron’s Ball earlier this month.

Brian and I bumped into some of my former coworkers who are now retired: Doug and Suzanne Coin and Glen and Bridget Bowman.

Here’s a pic of me with the ladies — Suzanne and Bridget.

DJ Carbon, the most iconic DJ in all of Wichita was there as well.

Obligatory selfie with the hubs.

The new dress I got from Southern Fried Chics was perfect.

Wu Shock was at the event too!

Here are some pics of the delicious dinner and dessert we enjoyed.

You can’t have too many selfies. LOL.

I guess people felt bad for us because they offered to take our pics.

Brian with Glen and Doug.

Suzanne got me a bear. It’s super soft!

Fun photo booth pics!

As benefit dinners go, this is one of our favorites. For one, the attire is pretty casual. As much as I like seeing Brian in a tux, he doesn’t enjoy it much because he finds it too stuffy. This one is Western-themed so, even though it’s a fancy event, you can be cowboy-like and fit right in. People can be as dressed up or as casual as they want to be. Also, the atmosphere is super relaxed and fun.

It was even more fun this year because the Bowmans and the Coins were there. Usually, Brian and I attend these events by ourselves. It’s always more fun when there are familiar faces or friends to hang out with.

Huge thanks to our friend Joe Parten for hooking us up with VIP tickets! I hope we get to go again next year. Definitely something to look forward to in 2020.

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VASA2 Grand Opening

Posted on November 25, 2019 by Ching under Events.

Did you know that VASA2 (located at the old Extreme Racing, also formerly a Hobby Lobby in a past life) at Brittany Center on 21st and Woodlawn is now open? I had a great time on grand opening day with these guys.

VASA2 opened the weekend before Halloween (soft opening) and then grand opening was November 2. Since we signed up for special classes on that day, not only did we get to take a highly coveted Studio class for free, we also got bonus swag — PUSH BEYOND t-shirts!

Three of my awesome coworkers — Amir, Alex, and Shanda — took the VASA Zone Studio Cycle class with me, Brian, and our friend Jeff.

It was an amazing class but I think Brian felt like he was going to die. LOL.

Right now is a great time to check out VASA Fitness. All group fitness classes (excludes Studio and TEAM classes) are FREE through the end of the month for members and non-members. This is your open invitation to join us!

Here’s my schedule for the week:
Monday, 6:30 PM – Zumba at VASA1 (Harry location)
Tuesday, 6:00 PM – Aqua Zumba at VASA2 (Woodlawn location)
Friday, 10:00 AM – Zumba at VASA2 (Woodlawn location)
Saturday, 9:00 AM – Aqua Zumba at VASA2 (Woodlawn location)

I normally would teach an Aqua Zumba class at 6 PM on Thursday nights also but this Thursday happens to be Thanksgiving so the gym closes early. We have a special group fitness schedule in the morning.

Also, I normally do not teach any classes during the day on Fridays because I work but, since I’m off work for the holiday and Jessie needed a sub for her class, I offered to cover it. Since classes are free right now, there is no reason not to check out VASA. I hope to see you sometime this week!

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My Last Class at Genesis

Posted on November 22, 2019 by Ching under Zumba.

A few pics from my final class at Genesis Health Clubs (West Central), which happened to be on Halloween and the day after my birthday.

We enjoyed some cupcakes courtesy of Jack and Joetta.

Even though my time at Genesis was short-lived (I started teaching group fitness there after we returned from Costa Rica in the Spring and ended my stint right before we left for Mexico this Fall), I will miss these ladies tremendously. They were kindest and most thoughtful — simply the best — bunch ever!

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Pickleball Birthday

Posted on November 20, 2019 by Ching under Events.

You know how 2016 was my big Zumba year? Well, this year is shaping up to be the “Year of Pickleball” for me. Granted, it was last year that I discovered pickleball; however, this is the year that huge things happened.

I made a ton of new friends. Played in my first tournament. We had a couple of fun cookouts. Met a bunch of pros at the Franklin Pickleball Masters. I even had a pickleball birthday party at Y thanks to my friend Matt.

Zumba birthdays are fun but I’d never been to a pickleball birthday party before — and, it was mine to boot — so that was HUGE. Hopefully, this is just the first of many more celebrations like it.

Brian and I got to the party late because we first had to pick up the cake.

Oh, since my birthday is so close to Halloween, I forgot to mention that it was a costume party. LOL. The pickleball group was planning a Halloween cookout that same weekend that Matt planned the pickleball birthday party so we ended up combining the two events.

Here’s a better picture of the very chocolate-y cake.

This is my friend Tom’s wife Lani. She is also Filipino.

Do you like the photo frame? It’s the same one from the Cancer Crawl a few months ago. I just repurposed it.

This is my friend Karen in her very clever pickleball paddle costume which she designed after her own paddle.

Becci and Greg.

Trixie.

Mary.

Debbie and Bill. Debbie hurt her ankle several days before this so she couldn’t play but she came out anyway. She had an awesome Ghostbusters costume too!

This is Mr. Clean who also sometimes goes by Bruce.

Debbie, Bruce, and me with Matt (in green on the left). Matt did all of the legwork to make the event possible.

Bruce, Debbie, and me with Tiffany and Donnie (on the right).

Even in full out Halloween costumes, they still had no problem kicking everyone’s butt. There’s another pic of Karen, Debbie, and Tiffany below.

These ladies are so much fun!

Debbie sandwiched between Donnie and Tiffany.

Debbie with Gregg. Gregg is THE pickleball guy. He’s our official pickleball ambassador in Wichita.

Matt and Debbie. This party could not have happened if it weren’t for Matt’s persistence. He made it so that all of our non YMCA friends could come out and play also. We had such a great turnout!

The picture below is only about half of the people who were there. We took the group pic after several people had already left. Some people were there for just the normal open play. Some people came out because they saw the event posted in our Facebook group. I had a great time and it seemed like everyone else did too!

The pickleball party was the Sunday before my birthday so, not one to waste a really good picture frame, I brought it again with me to our league tournament on Wednesday night (the day of my actual birthday). Because of an overbooking issue, we skipped a week and the final night of league actually fell on my birthday.

It worked out perfect because I got a few more pics with the picture frame and got lots of mileage out of it.

My partner Renee and I didn’t win the tournament but I felt like we had great chemistry and played really well together. I really think we held our own with some of the better intermediate teams. It was a very positive first league experience for me. Anyway, here are some action shots…

Overall it has been a fabulous birthday month! And, we continued to celebrate during our trip to Mexico. More on that next time. Until then, GNG.

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Fall Team Building

Posted on November 17, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do.

Last month we had a team building activity at work that involved carving pumpkins. I’d never done that before and it was actually kind of fun. Now I’m thinking that Brian and I should do this next year.

Here are some of the pictures that I took from that day.

We had a great turnout!

This, by far, is my favorite pic.

This one is my second favorite. It’s a very close second.

Here are the awesome carvings that people created.

After a long deliberation, the judges announced that Vicki, Robin and Michael carved the winning pumpkin.

Group photos.

Not everyone could stay for the activity so this wasn’t everyone. We had more people who joined us for lunch but then had to leave. These are just the people who stayed to do the activity with us.