Nathan - Our "Man With a Plan"

Here on the Texas Gulf Coast, we've been keeping a close eye on Hurricane Gustav over the past week. We are relieved that we seem to have avoided the storm, although we may get quite a bit of rain in the next week. For the past several days, we've been discussing whether or not we needed to evacuate to Texarkana or Katy. Nathan thought this sounded like a lot of fun. He's our planner. Last night (well after we told him that we would be safe at home and would not need to evacuate), he decided he needed to pack his bag. He disappeared for some time and came back down with his suitcase and a box of "very important" things that would need to go with him. He announced he was ready to go and was impatient with us because we had not started packing. He even called Grandma last night to make sure her minivan would be available for our travels and called Gran and Grandad to let them know he would be on his way. He had a plan in mind and there was no convincing him that we really weren't leaving. I finally ventured to look in his suitcase this evening...I was curious to know what he considered "essential." I thought I'd share the list with you - in case you're ever fleeing from a hurricane. You must pack: a personal mini-fan, a stuffed shark, a combination lock, a tinker-toy "rain siren," a quilt, a plastic basket, a canteen, a Diego cell-phone, a jointed wooden snake, a kaliedoscope, a rocket launcher, a dis-assembled metal detector, your taggie blanket, a dinosaur puppet, one pair of Hulk underwear, a Spider-man T-shirt, khaki shorts (neutrals match everything!), Milton book by Hayde, and a ski cap. (NOTE: These items do not include the box of toys he packed.) He's so focused and so serious...how could you not love that?!