Listen to your instincts??

For the second time in as many days, our family has packed and loaded up the car. Made sure all 4 of the cats are together and not locked in a closed room. Gotten pillows, small treasured toys and important papers and gotten in the car to evacuate from Hurricane Ike.

So why am I at home blogging on my computer?

Well, yesterday when we set out to leave, as soon as we started driving Steve and I looked at each other and said, "Is this really what we want to do?" We knew of one of our neighbors who was staying, so we wouldn't be the only ones. The traffic started building up before we even got onto the main road. We decided to turn around, go to Walmart (ended up at HEB instead) and see what provisions we could find and go home to see what category Ike would be when it made landfall. Category 3, we would leave; Cat 2 or less we would stay.

So this morning I got up and it said it might be category 3 when it made landfall. We started getting everything together again, making last minute adjustments to window protection and not looking forward to a 5-hour drive. (Turns out now it's only Cat. 2, it's just so dang big!)

Once again, we got in the car, everyone was ready (again!). We decided to drive around the neighborhood to see how many people were staying. By now we knew that almost our whole street was staying put. All of our neighbors in our cul-de-sac. And in the neighborhood, almost every house had cars and signs of activity. Kids out playing, etc.

Steve and I look at each other again and say, "Why do we feel like we have to leave? Do we really want to do this?" I have never been so indecisive in my life, Steve felt the same way. We sat and made a list of the pros of staying and the pros of leaving. High on the pros of leaving were 1) Beck is very scared to stay; and 2) Getting to see Gramma and Grampa. High on the pros of staying were 1) Not having to drive up and back in bad weather and horrific traffic on the return journey; and 2) Being home in case a window breaks and needs to be shored up to prevent further damage to the house.

Listening to our instincts and staying put won out. We will "bond" in the master bedroom closet or the new attic room that Steve built out off of Nathan's room. Sort of a family camp-out, indoors. We will also be able to make sure the kitties are o.k.

Will it be fun? Doubtful. Will we be glad we stayed? We'll see. But I do have faith that God will protect us and that He helped us make and informed decision.

Hopefully I'll be back soon to blog about it all.

Love to family and friends!
Rhonda