Neato Gang! Neal News Here...: April Showers!

I spent the past weekend in Charlotte, where Adrienne & I co-hosted a baby shower for Emily (and baby Charlotte Patricia, who is due at the end of May). I've been so pre-occupied with friend and family health scares, as well as work, that I hadn't ramped up for the trip as much as I normally would have. Once I got there, though, it took me no time to reset priorities and really enjoy the time with my friends.

As you probably know, Emily's our friend who does everything first. She was the first to get married, the first to get a dog, the first to buy a home, the first to start a family. As competitive as I usually am, I'm always excited to see what she does next, and then I generally follow in her footsteps a few years later, taking her best practices along with me. (As you can see from the list above, I have only yet to accomplish the first of those four activities. And for those who are wondering, dog and home are definitely coming before additions to the family!)

But I digress. After a longggggg plane ride (and a trip to Detroit), I finally made it to Charlotte on Thursday night. I visited with Emily, Ryan and their dog, Nash, for a while before we were all so tired we went to bed. Friday, Adrienne and I did shower prep before Emily joined us for dinner at one of our favorite WFU restaurants, the Village Tavern (except this one was in Charlotte, clearly). The shower was on Saturday, and we couldn't wait for the guests to arrive.

For those of you who don't know Emily or Adrienne, let me try to explain. Think of me: only child, beautiful, organized, incredibly smart, on-the-ball, hysterically funny, modest, you get the picture. In terms of qualities that come to mind quickly, we are practically the same people. (I hope they are not offended!) Actually, I'm probably the slacker of the three of us. Definitely the most sarcastic...

Anyway, because Adrienne and I are who we are, we had most of the prep and set-up done on

Friday. So when Saturday rolled around - despite the fact that we took a long walk, ate breakfast, showered, picked up flowers and balloons, prepared the food, and put the final touches on the shower - we were still ready an hour early. For some reason I couldn't sit still so we took lots of pictures and just sat around and read Us Magazine while I looked at the clock every 5 minutes. Pictured right = me waiting.

Eventually, everyone showed up and the shower began. We talked, played some games, and watched Emily open some of the most adorable baby gifts I have ever seen. I love the hamper filled with goodies!

We wrapped the weekend up in true Wake Forest style, with a trip to a BBQ place/sports bar and watched Kansas kill UNC, which was pretty fun for Demon Deacon fans.

Even though the trip was short, it was so worth it. I hope you enjoy the photos!