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.
Fun times!
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Dance ‘Til You’re Dead
Posted on November 15, 2019 by Ching under Community, Events, Zumba.
This event is by far one of the best Zumba events I’ve been part of this year. Earlier this year, during the Spring, we had a Y Takeover event at Chicken N Pickle. The event is similar to this one but it was Zumba and Sh’bam combo. That event was a lot of fun too, I found the event last month even more fun because it was all Zumba. If you can’t already tell, I am not a huge fan of Sh’bam so as much as possible have been staying away from those events. I know my mantra is “Never miss a party if you can help it” but if I have to do Sh’bam then I usual somehow magically have other better, more fun things to do. LOL.
I think I was open-minded about Sh’bam before I actually tried it. They say always give something a few tries before coming to a conclusion. Now that I’ve tried it a few times, I can safely say I do not enjoy it as much as I enjoy Zumba.
The event a few weeks ago at Chicken N Pickle was just all Zumba so it was perfect. It was a collaboration between North and South YMCA instructors. There were eight of us altogether.
From left: Joel, Todd, Jessie, Aisha, Bryden, Missy, Rose and me.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the event.
I love these events at Chicken N Pickle. The setup over there is just awesome and perfect for outdoor events like this one. I can’t wait until winter is over and we can start having these events again.
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Fight Night at the Star
Posted on November 13, 2019 by Ching under Events.
We got to have a mini reunion with our #VacayWithJayJay buds a few weeks ago.
Clockwise from left: Alicia, Kirk, Mark, Brian, Becca, Tina, Justin, me, Jay and Reniece.
This was my first live fight ever. I’ve only ever seen them on TV. I was kind of glad that we were at the Fire Club above the arena so we were far away from the ring. I don’t know how I would have handled all the fluids flying about during the fight.
Here’s a group photo we took that shows our vantage point. From left: the Shooks (Reniece and Mark), the Hunties (Justin and Tina), Becca, the Shorts (Alicia and Kirk)… I’m not quite sure who that guy is on the very right. We might have gotten introduced that night but I can’t remember. The big head front and center is Jay. Brian and I are in the upper left corner.
We might have been farther away but we had a great view.
Not only was it my first live fight, but it was also our first time at the Fire Club. It’s pretty cool up there.
It’s definitely the way to watch events at the Kansas Star Casino arena. Putting it on my list of things to consider for the next concert that comes through.
It was nice to be able to catch up with our #VacayWithJayJay group who we got to spend a lot of time with in Costa Rica earlier this year. Incidentally, we are traveling with the Hunties and the Dills again this week. Vacationing with friends is the best.
I’ll post our trip recap when we’re back stateside. Until then, GNG.
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