Cincinnati Appointments

We got to Cincinnati on Sunday evening. We have a total of 3 appointments. Since it was Spring Break I was trying to combine some to save school time missed later.

The Childrens Hospital always sets us up in the hotels. They have contracts with them and we get a much lower rate than normal. Not to mention that I don't have to sit on the internet trying to figure out which hotel is closer to which facility we are going to. Depending on the doctor we are seeing as to where their office will be. There are many campuses.

So Sunday night we are set up for "Six Acres" Bed and Breakfast. The pictures on the internet looked nice. But we stayed in the "annex". Mainly because we had the kids with us probably. Well, we got there and the kids went nuts. They were running all over the place checking every nook and cranny there was. And believe me there were tons of them. This house was 3 stories tall plus a basement (or cellar). It was very old and had all of the neat things that make these old houses look so wonderful. There was a large bedroom off the foyer that was probably the old dining room. Then there was an old sunroom where they had one twin bed in and we added a rollaway. The kids slept there. The other two upper floors were full of bedrooms too. But we stayed downstairs. The funny thing was the bathroom. When you sat down you could feel the floor was leaning to the right. Sure enough the floor had sunk. It felt very solid, but you had to hold on to keep from sliding to the right.

The Annex

The kids thought they were in a mansion. They absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to tell everyone where they stayed.

My bedroom

Below is the dining area looking into the "sunroom" that was where the kids slept. I think they liked it best because they felt like they were on their own. The livingroom was quite large so it seemed like they were in another house.

They had a nice breakfast for us this morning. The kids did a wondeful using their etiquette. Napkins properly in their lap, manners while eating, not reaching, saying please and thank you, etc. They were so cute.

Tonight we are at Fairfield Inn, Marriot. Heated pool for the kids. So that was fun. They were tired by nighttime, but Sydnee absolutely was determined she wasn't going to sleep. I know it was nearly 11:00 before she even attempted to close her eyes. But she finally did.

We hit a few local quilt shops too. But you'll have to see my other blog for that one. We rated each store on content and personality. You can go to my other blog to see that information.

On the way home, we stopped at IKEA. Oh my gosh! This place is too cool. I had no idea. I've seen commercials, ads, etc. We got there about 4:00 and didn't leave until 8:30. The kids loved the idea that they had a sitting service for kids. They would let you drop them there with toys, games, crafts, etc for one hour. They loved it. My only disappointment was that it's a German store, but many things were made in China. We have been trying very hard not to buy things not made in USA. And yes, that is extremely hard to do. But I also find that I don't buy as much junk that I really don't need. If you ever get the chance to go to IKEA, you need to go. The prices were good too!

On the way back home on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to find and take a picture of the two places I lived while in Northern KY after I was born. I was born in Covington at St. Elizabeths, but lived in Erlanger. We lived on the top floor of this building.

This is the apartment building we moved to for more space. I guess after I was born, we needed the space. We lived there until we moved to Fairdale. It was close to a year I think. This was on St Joseph's Avenue. The funny thing is that one day I was talking to a friend of mine. You know how you get on the conversation of "when were you born"? I just happen to ask her where she was born and she told me it was a small town that no one had ever heard of. I asked her to tell me anyway, because you never know. So she went on to tell me it was Covington. The next thing you know we find she was born in the same hospital, same town and we all had lived in the same apartment building at one point. She was born a few years ahead of me. But her Mom described it to Mom and I several years ago and sure enough it was right across the hall from where we lived. There goes that small world thing.

After getting back home this week, there was the one night with storms. For some reason Sydnee was getting the idea of what bad weather was like. Usually when we get these storms, Mike is at work. So it's just the kids and I. Sometimes we'll go to Mom's if they are going to be in the middle of the night because we don't have a basement and that way I can put the kids to sleep in the basement and we don't have to wake them up to get them in a car, etc. Well this time she decided that she wanted to save her animals and dolls. So she loaded them up in her playpen so they would be close to her if we went downstairs. We have a garage that sits 3 feet lower than the rest of the house. So it's there if we are stuck. But at this point, we won't be able to get in there because she has stuffed it with her toy.

That night we went on over to Mom's house (and the storm wound up being a bust). But the kids had been wanting me to make their birthday invitations. So Sydnee wore the dress that her cousin Kim and Aunt Beverly gave her. She looked to cute. Simon kept pretending that he was her prince charming.