Not prompted to 'Keep notes on iPad' when disable Notes

Sorry if this has been asked 100 times before. Why wasn't I prompted to 'Keep notes on iPad' (or some variation) when I disable Notes in the iCloud settings on my iPad? I just did the same with Reminders (toggled it Off) and I was prompted to keep a local copy. So anyway, all notes have instantly vanished from my iPad. Luckily, I can still see all of them in the cloud (www.icloud.com from my PC) AND on my wife's iPhone. Note that we share an Apple ID for iCloud purposes. Our objective was to each keep a mutually exclusive LOCAL copy and abandon sharing/syncing them via the cloud. How do I get them back on my iPad? If I toggle Notes back on on my iPad, what will happen? I'm afraid to even try it because I fear it might "upload" my null notes (all 0 of them now) and wipe out all notes both in the cloud and on my wife's iPhone, then they're gone from all 3 locations! Does that make sense? Why does something so simple have to be so confusing and/or non-intuitive?! Anyway, your help would be most appreciated. 😉