FLIP + CHING

Happiness Is…

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Ching under Events, Relationship.

Happiness is… being able to spend time with your loves. This is a picture of me and Brian with our babies, Saki and Molly, taken last Sunday.

Happiness is… bowling a really clean game. Brian, Zach, and I were at the Alley on Monday night for the final night of our Summer Trios bowling league. It wasn’t a regular bowling night. It was awards/prize night but the Alley was nice enough to let us bowl for free that evening.

I’ve been bowling really crappy lately. My normal 160 average has actually decreased by almost 10 pins over the last year. I bowled the cleanest game I’ve ever bowled in a long time that night. Too bad it didn’t count.

Happiness is… celebrating your 14th wedding anniversary with your amazing husband. We didn’t make any major anniversary celebration plans this year for a couple of reasons. First, we spent a lot of money at ZINCON just a couple of weeks prior. Second, we had committed to several things over the weekend that we couldn’t get out of… But, as luck would have it, Brian and I were both able to take off work on Wednesday, our actual anniversary day, to do some celebrating.

Our anniversary celebration consisted of a day trip to TopGolf in Overland Park and riding around Country Club Plaza in Kansas City (just a few miles down the street) for some Pokémon hunting.

Brian has been wanting to go to TopGolf since last November when I told him about our team building event there. I’ve wanted to return too but we have been too busy to make a trip up to the Kansas City/Overland Park area. I’m glad we could finally make it happen last week.

It wasn’t until Monday when I brought the idea up to him and asked my boss Ginger for permission to take a vacation day on Wednesday. This was pretty spontaneous for a couple of people who plan everything weeks (and sometimes even months) in advance. This is as spontaneous as it gets for us, folks. I feel tremendously grateful and blessed that it all worked out.

Here are a few more pictures from our mid-week anniversary day trip.

The food at TopGolf is actually pretty good so we had lunch there while we were playing. I knew I hit it out of the park when Brian told me how much fun he had that day. “Thanks for suggesting this. I had a lot of fun. Did you?” he asked me. “Yes,” I replied. “Are you sure?” He asked again. I was like, “Just because I sucked at it doesn’t mean I didn’t have fun. I had a blast!”

Happiness is… coming up with great ideas every now and then. The best part for me is seeing Brian’s face and knowing how much fun he had on our little excursion. It has been a thoroughly fulfilling and joyful week.

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Getting Themes Going in Zumba Class

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Ching under Zumba.

Andrea and I unintentionally matched last weekend. It has inspired me to get themes going in Zumba class.

Oh, and I have a few more of these Zumba World Tour buttons. If you would like one, just come up to me in class. I’m giving these away until I run out of them. If you want all 11 designs, you can get the entire pack at Zumba.com. Remember to use affiliate code CHING any time you order so you can get 10% OFF.

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Ping Pong, Anyone?

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Ching under Games.

Came back to work after ZINCON and found this in our “fun” room at work. It’s perfect because it’s too hot to play outside at the pop-up park in the middle of summer. We’ve gotten great use out of the new ping pong table since we got it. Kinda makes me want to get one of our basement.

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Day 4 of ZINCON 2016

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Ching under Travel, Zumba.

Here’s Brian sporting his new Zumba sweatpants on our final full day in Orlando…

My final session of ZINCON 2016 was Sabor Cubano with ZES Betsy Dopico and Team CUBA. Here are a couple of videos from the demo they did at the beginning of the workshop.

The demo was meant to give us a preview of the rhythms prevalent in Cuban music: Rumba, Son, Cha-Cha-Cha, Mambo, Timba, Conga, and Cubaton.

I know Betsy said it wasn’t meant to be a show but it was a great visual presentation of the history and development of Cuban rhythms.

Here’s one of my favorite photos from the session.

This is a great one of Betsy up close.

I went straight to the closing session after Sabor Cubano because I knew the line would be long already. I was right. This is as close as I could get. The picture above is of Zumba CEO Alberto Perlman, also known as AP. I actually got a picture with him in 2013, when I attended my very first ZINCON.

After the closing session, I went back to the room to help Brian pack because we have an early departure the next day. While we were packing, I showed him my impressive ZINCON hotel room keycard collection.

All the way up on the 26th floor, we could hear the loud music coming from the Hyatt Regency pool below. It was so tempting to go down there. However, we were responsible and did our packing and then got ready to meet our old neighbors Jim and Karen for dinner.

Brian and I walked over to Pointe Orlando, where we were meeting Jim and Karen, a few minutes early so we could do some Pokémon GO hunting. LOL. This seemed like a nice place to stop and catch some mons while we waited for them.

We initially talked about going to Cuba Libre because I had a hankering for Cuban food (specially after my Sabor Cubano session that morning) but they weren’t open yet and we were hungry.

We ended up eating at the Pub Orlando instead. Brian ate there without me three years ago. He walked over there while I was in one of my sessions.

I was originally bummed about not getting Cuban food while in Florida but the fabulous dinner company more than made up for it. Also, the Pub has an extensive beer list which was great for these two.

Jim ordered the fish and chips.

Brian had the ham sandwich on a pretzel roll, which is his favorite thing to get there. How you have a favorite sandwich at a place you’ve only been to twice in your life is beyond me. He says it is his favorite, though.

Karen and I ordered the exact same thing: the chicken tenders with the side of mac and cheese. The mac and cheese was amazing. I would order it all again.

It was so wonderful to see Jim and Karen again. We’ve missed them so much.

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Day 3 of ZINCON 2016

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Ching under Events, Travel, Zumba.

Of all of the trainings I’ve ever taken at ZINCON, I looked forward to Zumba Basic 2 with ZES Loretta Bates the most. Why? Because she is AMAZING!

The best part about the training is that she was assisted by two very talented people: ZES George Iu and ZES Michael Marmitte.

ZES Priscilla Mirabal from Oklahoma was there to help as well. Interestingly, Priscilla was the ZES who trained Loretta when she was licensed years ago.

In Basic 1, we learned the four basic rhythms: Salsa, Merengue, Cumbia, and Reggaeton. In Basic 2, we learned six additional rhythms: Flamenco, Samba, Belly Dance, Soca, Tango, and Quebradita. We also learned about stylistic separation which is important for staying true to the unique flavor of each distinct rhythm.

Anyway, after a fabulous Basic 2 training, it was time for the prom night theme party. We ran into some of friends from Wichita: Abby, Crystal, and Gina.

I also ran into the fabulous Chuany who we met on the cruise back in January. She’s an instructor at Betsy and Beto’s studio.

For my prom outfit, I found an $8 dress from Goodwill which fit me perfectly. It’s a short dress so I didn’t have to worry about having to get it hemmed. I got a pair of silver Street Boss sneakers from Zumba.com to go with my dress. I also wore my ZINCON 2013 wristbands because the colors actually worked with my dress.

Here’s a look at the whole outfit. See, I wasn’t the only one wearing sneakers!

The craziest part about this next photo is not everyone attended the theme party.

This is just a fraction of the people at ZINCON. Andrea and I didn’t end up getting official prom photos because the lines at all of the photo stations were long. Even though there was more than one photo area, they all had long lines. Andrea and I did manage to find the lash and lip bar. That was fun. They gave us fake eyelashes and glitter lipstick. It reminded me of the face-painting booth at the ZIN Soiree in 2013. The theme that year was A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Here’s how we looked with our fake eyelashes, glitter lipstick, and jewels…