Pictures From Chick-Fil-A and Chipotle
Posted on April 6, 2017 by Ching under Community.
Here are some pictures from our Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraising events at Chick-Fil-A (Central and Rock) and Chipotle (Maple and Ridge).
Alex and Faith manned the Spirit Wheel at Chick-Fil-A. I was in Kansas City that night but Brian was there to support the event and take pictures for me. He kept me posted all evening and made me feel like I was there with them.
Kate came out to support the event.
Christina and Jake were there at Chick-Fil-A too.
Brian got a selfie with Alex.
Here’s a picture of Lila, her husband Michael, and their kiddos.
These next set of photos were taken at Chipotle on Monday night.
Misty came to both events but she only did the drive-thru at Chick-Fil-A. Since she came and ate inside this last time, I made sure to get a selfie with her.
April and Gavin came to eat and support the fundraiser as well.
Jeff and Devan came out also.
There were a few others who came to support the fundraiser that I didn’t get pictures with because Brian and I left to go workout after we had early supper. Probably not the smartest idea I’ve had.
After Zumba at South YMCA, some of Missy’s peeps came out to eat with 10 minutes left on our fundraiser.
Here’s a pic of me and Danielle.
Danielle, Erin, Wendy, and Todd.
Here’s a picture of our group shutting down the fundraiser. We had such a great time visiting that I almost forgot to pick up my work car for the drive to Kansas City the next day. We drove clear past downtown before I remembered.
Anyway, if you missed our restaurant fundraising events, not to worry. You can still donate and support the cause. I’m accepting donations via my Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraising page (simply click on the link and follow the prompts). Thanks in advance for supporting this awesome organization. You’re making a difference!
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Zumbathon® Instructor Appreciation Event
Posted on April 2, 2017 by Ching under Community, Zumba.
March was a super busy month for which I am still recovering. It was a whirlwind with something going on every weekend. I still can’t believe I survived.
At least I got to spend lots of time with my favorite people. This is a picture of Missy and Brian at the new Los Cocos in Andover after the Shake Your Shamrocks Zumbathon®. This was the night that we introduced her to the joys of $1.99 margaritas everyday.
The next day, we saw everyone again because I hosted a “thank you” get together for the instructors who generously volunteered their time to teach at the Zumbathon®.
I try to be purposeful about everything I do, so I had three main objectives for this event:
- I bought matching t-shirts for all the instructors to wear at the Dance For Kids’ Sake Zumbathon® as a “thank you” for their participation and I needed a way to get the shirts to everyone without having to drive all over town to make shirt deliveries.
- I needed to make sure that everyone knew the location of the Zumbathon® ahead of time so none of the instructors would get lost and be late on the day of the event.
- It was a good way to have a small, fun get together to show everyone how much they are appreciated.
Pat, Charis, and Stephanie all got the black shirts. Todd, Amy, and Christina got the aqua blue shirts. Andrea, Missy, and I got the neon green shirts.
The event was an instructor-appreciation-slash-shirt-cutting-party, where everyone got to pick up their shirts and bling it out too. To that end, I brought a bunch of old shirts for us to practice on.
This was one of my “practice” shirts.
Charis (foreground) and Andrea (background) both did “practice” rounds as well.
I think Missy must have brought her own “practice” shirt because I do not recognize that one. I don’t think it was part of my shirt stash.
Pat did a “practice” round also.
I have no idea why everyone insisted on cutting on the floor, but they all seemed to be fine with it. Here are a few more pictures…
Here’s Charis contemplating her design.
Here’s Andrea’s finished product.
We brought in cake and sandwiches to celebrate Stephanie’s birthday.
We made her cut her own cake. LOL.
I did two “practice” rounds at the event but didn’t end up finalizing my shirt design until the next day. Here’s the finished product.
I had to be creative and strategic about where I made my cuts because, while I wanted to shrink the one-size-fits-most to fit me, I didn’t want to lose any of the writing on the shirt both on the front and back.
Rather than cutting along the bottom to shorten the shirt (it was almost to my knees #ShortPersonProblems), I decided to cinch the sides to hike it up to a more manageable length.
I braided the back of the shirt to shrink the width of it but I had to start below the Zumba® logo/design because I didn’t want to lose any of it.
Here’s a close-up shot of the braid design.
Here’s another view of the back and side.
I decided the front was too boring so I cut some slits on the right shoulder.
It’s still pretty boring on the front but there wasn’t much I could do because I wanted to keep all of the writing. It turned out pretty well overall. This is by far my favorite “destroyed shirt” to date.
When I write my post about the actual Dance for Kids’ Sake Zumbathon® event you’ll see how everyone’s shirts turned out. Everyone did a fabulous job of customizing their respective shirts. All of our shirts turned out different and uniquely our own. Stay tuned!
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Shake Your Shamrocks
Posted on April 1, 2017 by Ching under Community, Zumba.
We’ve had back-to-back fun Zumba events in the community of late. First, there was the Zumba Love Party at East YMCA; then Step Up & Dance at West YMCA; then Member Madness at North YMCA; there was also a Blacklight Z-Party at South YMCA; and finally we had “Shake Your Shamrocks” at Andover YMCA.
Our event in Andover was so named because we decided to hold it on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day.
As someone who cannot resist a good Zumbathon®, I attended many of these but I was only involved in organizing the member appreciation event at my home branch Andover YMCA. There are actually five of us Zumba® instructors who teach Zumba® classes in Andover — Tiffany on Monday mornings, Charis on Monday nights, Mandy on Tuesday nights, Hannah on Thursday nights, and me on the weekends — but only four of us were available that Friday. Tiffany could not take the time off her regular job so she sat this one out. She participated in the one at South YMCA though, so she had already done one of these events.
Charis, Hannah, Mandy, and I decided to teach six songs each. Mandy put together a killer playlist. Charis and I volunteered to take care of the decorations. Charis got streamers and these dangly star things. I had some balloons set aside for the Dance For Kids’ Sake Zumbathon® event that I was organizing so I decided to dig out all of the green balloons from that bunch and use it for this event.
Initially, we weren’t sure if we should have the event in the studio or the gym so we reserved both. Jackie was there that night to set up the sound system in the gym just in case we needed the larger space. Since she was around and she’s much taller than Charis and me, we asked for her help with taping up the streamers at the top of the mirror. You can kind of see the decorations in the picture below.
I think it turned out pretty well. I was a little bit worried because I popped three of the balloons in transit but we had more than enough to make the studio look festive.
We were able to stay in the studio because, in addition to it being St. Patty’s Day, all three of our local college teams (KU, K-State, and Wichita State) had basketball games that evening. We still had a pretty good turnout (about 55 people) but not enough that we had to overflow to the gym.
It actually wasn’t too crowded in the studio. We had plenty of room for everyone. And, it turned out better, as far as I’m concerned, because the studio has a better sound system and mirrors. Dancing is way more fun with mirrors!
Here’s a better picture of our group. Those who stayed for the photo at the end, anyway. Some people don’t do photos.
Here are some action shots we took during the Zumbathon®.
This is Mandy in the green shirt in the foreground.
Mandy did a fabulous job of mirroring. That’s when you face the class and do a mirror image of the moves. She did this a few times throughout which, I think, is super helpful. The recommended way is always to face the class because it allows you to connect with the students better. We can get by without doing it because we have mirrors. However, one of my goals for 2017 is to teach facing the class more.
Christina came late but she made it!
This is Alicia and her daughter Kariana.
They have become regulars on weekends. I love having them in my class.
This is my friend Andrea behind me. She is also a licensed Zumba® instructor. She started teaching classes at Derby Rec this month.
Of course, I had to get a selfie that shows off our fabulous decorations that Charis, Jackie, and I worked hard to put up. We were going for festive yet tasteful and understated and I think we achieved it.
I love that we had this fabulous photo backdrop. I wish more people would have taken advantage of it. Here are some.
I had to demonstrate how it’s done. LOL.
Here we have another mother-daughter duo, Sonia and Carolina.
I love these two for going all out. I think they are regulars from Downtown YMCA.
They’re party of Missy’s crew.
We had a few Andover YMCA faces but we had great representation of Zumba® lovers from all over the city, which is actually what I liked best about the event. Missy brought in a ton of people. While we hosted the party to show our appreciation from our members, it was great that we got to share it with all members not just those who are based in Andover.
The event was actually free to non-members as well so it was a great opportunity to check out the Zumba® classes offered at the Y, Andover in particular. And, besides the event being free, our group exercise coordinator Kristen gave us bottles of water and t-shirts for everyone. I think everyone who attended the event got one and we still had some left over. She really hooked us up.
I know that St. Patty’s Day won’t fall on a Friday next year but this event turned out so well that I hope we do it again next year. It was fabulous! I wish you all could have been there to dance with us.
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Lunch at the Webster House
Posted on March 29, 2017 by Ching under Food and Drink.
These are pictures from our team lunch at the Webster House, a very unique restaurant and shop located near the Kauffman Center, a couple of weeks ago.
The food was delicious but the service was just okay. Our server was really slow and did not give us bread because he didn’t want to “over carb” us. We must have looked like we were on diets or something. LOL.
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My First Escape Room Experience
Posted on March 19, 2017 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.
I’d been wanting to try an escape room ever since the first one opened in Wichita a few years ago. Back when I led the Quality Assurance team in the Customer Relations Center (CRC), we talked about going to Wichita Room Escape. However, they were only open on the weekends at the time. They were first starting out and all the founders had day jobs. I’m not sure if the business is still owned by the same owners because the sign on the front door says Seed Entertainment LLC but their web site has Kingdom1 LLC. Either they’ve changed owners or they’ve grown because they are now open during the work week.
I’ve been team-less for a couple of years now. I’m still technically a member of the CRC team but I haven’t had team members reporting to me for a while. I was so grateful when Darcy invited me and Jeff (our department administrative assistant, who tends to not get invited to things either) to be part of her team building exercise. And, I was even more thrilled when I found out it would be a room escape activity because I’d always wanted to try it.
Darcy booked the Autopsy room for us, which is about a medium difficulty level. We were told the room has about a 30-35% success rate and that everyone who has escaped has used all their clues. After a short briefing about how to operate the various locks that we would find in our room, we were off to the races.
I’m not going to reveal too much here so as not to ruin the fun for others but I will say that it was a ton of fun solving puzzles with Jeff and #TeamAwesome, the team name that Darcy’s team has dubbed themselves. It was so exciting every time we solved one of the puzzles and unlocked one of the locks because it led to even more clues. There were times that we would get stuck and had to use one of our clues (you get to ask for help three times) and then, armed with some guidance, attacked our puzzles with renewed vigor.
The key to remember is to not be stubborn and wait too long to use your clues. There are dozens of puzzles to solve and locks to unlock. You can’t waste 20 minutes being stuck. If you are stubborn and what until the last five minutes of your allotted time (you have exactly an hour to escape the room) to ask for your first clue, it may not be as useful. They’re giving you a clue, not the answer, so you still have to process the information. I don’t know about you, but it’s harder for me to solve puzzles under duress. So that is probably the best advice I can give. Do not wait too long to ask for a clue when you get stuck because it may be too late.
Since we escaped, we got to write on their wall and that was really cool. We are now members of an elite club of room escapers. LOL.
Even though we escaped the room with plenty of time to spare, it was challenging enough that we still got a rush and sense of accomplishment out of the experience. When we were down to the last 10 minutes of our time, we had no idea how many more puzzles had to be solved or how many locks were left so we did feel a sense of urgency at that point. No one panicked and we got out after roughly 51 minutes and 27 seconds in the room.
I was very impressed at the sheer number of locks and puzzles that they managed to squeeze in to the room. There were clues everywhere. The clues hidden throughout the room also consisted of a good variety to where you weren’t solving the same types of puzzles. And there were some combinations where the clues were laid out in multiple ways so there was more than one way to arrive at the solution. They had us working together and using every bit of that room. It was very stimulating and definitely one of my most favorite team building activities to date.
After working up an appetite solving puzzles, we headed to Dempsey’s Burger Pub next door for lunch. Here are some pictures of our delicious food.
I had the salmon burger, which I enjoyed immensely. Dempsey’s serves amazing burgers but the Burger Stand in Topeka is still my favorite. I mean, they have ping pong there and Dempsey’s does not. LOL. As far as gourmet burgers go, Dempsey’s is probably as close as it gets around here, though.
After lunch we headed over to Central Standard Brewing where Josh’s girlfriend Alicea met up with us. We played a round of Uno before I had to leave to pick up my little sister (but that ended up being canceled last minute because of something that happened at school) so I really could have stayed for another round of Uno. Anyway, I had so much fun hanging out with #TeamAwesome that day. I hope they invite me to another one of their team building events again soon.
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