Why do we live here???

Last week we had a couple days of scary weather. We had a tornado watch for 2 days straight. I heard the sirens go off downtown twice. We had between 4-6 inches of rain in just 2 days. They said some of the wind gusts were up to 70mph. In some parts of Cincinnati there was golf ball size hail. One night we went and just stood on the porch watching the storm in the distance. It was amazing! There was so much lightening that it looked like a strobe light in the sky. It was scary listening to the weather man telling everyone to get into their safe place, either a room with no windows in the center of your house or the basement. They said that you could get into the bathtub and cover yourself with pillows. There was a few moments that I was really scared and I took grayson to the center of the house because I thought our house was going to blow over or the windows were going to come crashing in. The next day there were 5 confirmed tornados that touched down throughout Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. It was pretty scary.


Well now that the bad weather is over and we had so much rain....now it is extremely humid. AND...the CICADAS are out! I never even heard of a Cicada until I moved here. They are super ugly bugs that live in the ground for like 17 years then they come out of the ground and climb up trees and shed their exoskeleton and become these ugly flying things that sit up in the trees and make this horrible annoying sound. Once they come out of the ground they only live for like 30-40 days. They mate and then die. Every 4 years there are hatches but once every 17 years or so they have a huge hatch. Well...2008 is one of those big hatches. I keep hearing stories about previous hatchings. Our friend Britton said that he remembers one year it being so bad that the fastfood restaurants had to close their drive-ups because there were flying everywhere and because they were so loud they couldn't hear your order over the speaker! Some people say they would just walk around with a tennis racket to swat them away. We have been swimming at our friends Jennie and Britton's apartment quite a few times this year but the other day was crazy because there were Cicadas all over. I had a couple that got on my shoe and started crawling up my leg. Then one flew into my arm. The worst one was when Britton picked one up and threw it and it just started flying and changed directions and landed right in my hair!! EWWW! They are blind so they just fly into things all the time. They are super creepy looking. I've attached a couple pictures of what they look like. Be prepared to get the creepy-crawlies when you see these.

When you walk up to the trees you can see these all over on the trunks!!!


This in an adult Cicada. This is what they look like after they shed their skin. They can get up to 3 inches long! They are not small by any means!





This is what they look like as they are coming out of their skin. Gross I know! When they come out of their skin they can be up to 3 times as big as their exoskeleton..how does that make sense?

If you click on this website you can view a few different videos. The videos are really cheesy but you can hear the sound they make. It is really that loud and sometimes when you are outside you have to talk louder just hear each other. Here is the website. Just scroll down to see the videos. http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/