Alabama: Monday and Tuesday

Wedding festivities begin!

But not quite yet. The whole family was coming for dinner on Tuesday, but before that Mama had to teach a CPR class in Meridian. I decided to go with her, seeing as how I’d been meaning to get CPR certified for ages, but just never signed up for the class. But, even before that, I woke up and baked a cake. I know. Please, please acknowledge the amount of discipline it took to get me out of bed and conscious enough to bake, and then still get myself showered and dressed in time to leave Butler at 10:00 a.m.

What kind of cake? Italian Cream. My favorite. Ostensibly for dinner the next night, but really because I’d been craving one for ages.

I can report that I passed the test (which was a relief. How embarrassing would it be for the instructor’s daughter to fail?) and am now officially CPR certified (though I still don’t have my card yet).

Up next, a trip to Walmart (UGH) to buy all the groceries for dinner, followed up by a trip to Sam’s (I forget what necessitated this trip, but I think it might have been grapes for the grape salad). My sweet Mama bought me a surprise: the Alice in Wonderland DVD I’d been wanting.

Then, home to get all the tables set up and dressed, and of course, to cook. Tuesday night’s dinner was fantastic! I’ll post the recipes for pasta salad and grape salad. Along with that: Low Country Boil (shrimp, potatoes, corn, sausage), steaks, banana pudding (the best recipe ever, which I’ll also post), 7-layer salad (which I don’t like, and therefore will not post the recipe for) and I can’t even remember what else. OH! The cake!

I’m not sure what everybody talked about after dinner because Malak and I went back to Mama’s room for some peace and quiet. The Hopper was tuckered out, apparently, because he made it through about 20 minutes of Wonder Pets before drifting off to sleep while playing with my hair. Goodness gracious, I love that little boy.