Cincinnati, Ohio

We decided to take a little Labor Day family trip to Cincinnati. It's only two hours north of here, and they have IKEA! We wanted to do as much free as possible, so the plan was to leave around 7:00, grab breakfast at Wendy's since we had breakfast coupons, get to IKEA around 9:00, go to Washington Park around 10:30, and then get some famous Cincinnati chili for lunch and head back. Short but fun and Malachi could crash on the way back. Right...

First, we actually left on time and stopped at Wendy's for breakfast. Then we got to Cincinnati around 9. That's where our plan started to break down.

IKEA doesn't open until 10:00. And it was raining.

We we tried to find a mall so Malachi could run around, but the only mall we ended up at was this one: a technology mall that sold copiers and printers.

Next we thought we'd try Barnes & Noble. Doesn't open until 10:00. 

Eric finally suggested we go walk around the lobby of a nearby hotel. I was pretty hesitant, but it ended up being a great idea.

 Finally we ended up at IKEA. Malachi had fun trying out beds.

He also liked the kids area where he could try out their toys.

By the time we left it was packed!

So next we tried to go get chili since it was time for lunch. Ya, they close for the holidays. 

We tried to find the other big chain but couldn't, so we ended up at Burger King. Of course after we left we drove right past the other chili chain. 

Finally after lunch we made it to the park. It was really cool with a playground, splash park, and musical instruments built in!

We left around 1:30, and Malachi slept almost the whole way home. Even with us going the wrong way and heading to Lexington instead of Louisville. Oops! It was quite the day trip.

Life Update

We are getting settled into the new routine of life here. M-F I leave for work at about 6:30 and get home between 4-5. Then it's time for dinner, a little time with Malachi, and whatever is going on that evening which is often more school work. We still have a Tuesday night date night although these days it's all at home. Thursday nights I'm taking a class at Southern Seminary (where Eric goes). Weekend nights vary, but we try to have someone over for dinner at least one night.

Eric has class T/W/Th, so on Mondays and Fridays he's home with Malachi. They go running and try to do some of the house work, and when Malachi is napping, Eric does his homework. Eric has been really great about helping with some of the house chores I used to do like laundry and vacuuming. T/W/Th Malachi goes to child care at a friend's house near the seminary. He LOVES it! Loves it. I guess when he got there last Tuesday he did his happy dance, and their little girl ran up and down the hall equally excited to see him! Malachi also likes their 4-yr old son and gets upset when he leaves for any reason. We're so happy he loves it there, but it's kinda rough when Eric goes to pick him up in the afternoon and he cries and cries about leaving.

My school is going really well. It's hard. Really hard. But it's also really good. It's go go go non-stop as we walk our kids (yes, in middle school) to each class including lunch and barely have a break. And the kids are rough and needy. But I love it. The principal is good. The associate principals are always available and around the building. And there are three or four former teachers who are now support staff. On Thursday for example I needed some help/ideas about what to do with one bigger class of all the low readers. (Imagine 23 squirly 7th graders, 2/3 boys, all who read at a 2nd grade level or lower in one room...) I e-mailed one of the women right after the class. Within an hour she stopped by my room to see how she could help. After talking and deciding to do a reward/ticket/prize system with them she was back within the next hour with a roll of tickets and two big packs of sparkly and NFL pencils to give away. Come Friday I was able to implement the new system and actually had kids on-task for more than three seconds. Yeah!

Our weekends have been a blessed time to rest and recover from our busy weeks. On Saturday morning I've been going to a boot camp class. In the afternoons we've been doing stuff around the house, and Eric has been working on homework. This Saturday evening we had some friends over for dinner, and then the wife and I went shopping while Eric and the husband put Malachi to bed and played the Wii. On Sundays we've been going to so many different churches. It's kinda crazy, but there are just a lot of solid Bible-preaching evangelical churches here. We've narrowed it down to two that we both really like and hope to decide within the next week or so which one we'll attend. We want to soon get connected to people there through serving and a small group.

I'm trying to think of what else there is... I don't know! Feel free to post a comment/question!

 Eric and Malachi at the Derby Museum

 Our friend Lesley from China who's a student in CA this year

My new school!