Saturday was my nephew and his wife’s wedding celebration.  I am not calling it a reception per se because it was just a big party at Izzy’s parents house.  They move all of the furniture out of their living room and had long tables – seriously enough seating for about 80 people.

I put on make up and did my hair for the second Saturday in a row!  I think that may be a record. Open-mouthed smile

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We started out by hanging outside, but it was chilly – luckily they had those tall standing space heaters which helped.

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Tony with his family – I didn’t notice his Mom wasn’t looking at the camera – oops!  Tony’s sister, grand nephew and his parents.

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I sipped on a few glasses of Pinot grigio:

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Dinner ended up being served about an hour and a half later than they had planned.  The fire that was cooking the roasting pig went out, but it was worth the wait.  Probably the best roast pig I’ve had – moist and juicy!

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They also had the hugest Weber grill I’ve ever seen.  I kind of want one.  The chef nearly burned himself!

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Pork BBQ Sandwich, cole slaw, some fruit and Tony grabbed me a slice of corn bread – I love any kind of corn bread and this one was super good.  He’s always thinking of me! Open-mouthed smile

Bob and Izzy have a friend that brought his baby – he was so cute!  Izzy and Bob are going to be parents in February – they already know they are having a boy, so I especially like this picture:

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This baby though?  He’s only FOUR MONTHS OLD and weighs 24 pounds!

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I got to hold him for a while – it’s been a long time since I held a baby – well, almost toddler in this case.  The setting was gorgeous and it was a fun night.  We left just as the music turned to dance club music – yep we are getting old! Open-mouthed smile

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Then yesterday was Tony’s birthday!!  Football Sunday AND a birthday?  He was in heaven.  I bought him a long john donut for breakfast (he normally doesn’t eat anything) because Tony’s family was coming over for an early Sunday supper.  My SIL marinated some pork, and I made spring time risotto, macaroni and cheese and my PIL brought some crusty bread.

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And then Tony’s favorite cake – carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  I had already declared this insulin worthy!

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I had a sliver.  I actually like that there isn’t a lot of frosting, I am not a frosting person at all.  If I get served cake with tons of frosting I usually scrape most of it off.

After Tony’s family left and Tony was engrossed in football, I laid down on the couch and got all comfy.  I was under my cozy throw, my eyes kept wanting to shut.  I am the QUEEN of naps.

But, I didn’t work out Friday or Saturday, and I knew I had to get my butt in gear, otherwise that two day string of not working out could easily morph into two weeks!  So I got up and did 40 minutes of Insanity.  It felt good to sweat!  I knew napping wasn’t going to get me the body I want.

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I completely forgot to make the wedge salads for our earlier dinner, so I made them for our supper.  Tony LOVES a wedge salad – iceberg lettuce being his favorite.  I added some bacon, good blue cheese dressing and croutons.

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I love all kinds of different greens in my salad, but I have to admit, this was pretty tasty.  And since we were watching the Bears game last night, we had football food – chili dogs!

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Yep, mine has 1/4 cup of no bean chili (Chilli Man brand) and mustard and Frank’s hot sauce.  So good.  Luckily the Bears won so that made Tony’s day – they are 3-0 on the year!

And today is another busy day!  I have today off because it’s my Mom’s 73rd birthday today.  I am picking up my Mom and headed to Oak Park where my daughter will meet up at my sisters office and we are going out to lunch in Forest Park.

You guys – I’ve been dreaming about this burger I am going to have for days now. As soon as my Mom picked out the restaurant I’ve been dreaming about their FIRE BURGER.  Seriously, if I were to create my own spicy burger, this is what I would come up with.

fire burger

homemade spicy Italian sausage patty, pepper jack cheese, fire roasted jalapeños, oven roasted poblano peppers, topped with a fiery ranchero-sriracha sauce and garnished with French fried cherry peppers, served on potato bun.

Seriously, just reading that sentence again is making my mouth water!  And why have I never thought of making french fried cherry peppers?  Of course, since I have set the bar so high with this burger it will probably just be okay.  But I hope it’s amazing!

Alright, time to jump in the shower and get on with the day.  So happy I am not headed to work today!

Question of the Day:  What’s the best burger you’ve ever had?