Tomorrow is 50s Day at the kids' elementary school.

(this is not the important part)

Kristie Lou, aka "THE Best Friend EVER" - is making Abbey, aka "The Luckiest Kid Ever" - a custom poodle skirt tonight.

(holy crap!!!!!!!)

There will be pink felt swingy-skirtiness.

There will be a pink poodle with gold leash.

There will be 24 tiers of black ruffly-poofiness.

There will be awesomeness.

There will be absolutely nothing for me to do, after I measure Abbey's waist.

And it must be finished before 7:30am tomorrow morning.

The best part is Kristie always wanted a poodle skirt as a little girl ... so this is less of a sweatshop thing for me, and more of a living-out-a-childhood-dream thing for her. (Or at least that's what she tells me.)

MORE FOR YOUR MONEY: When asked, "What would Katie do without you" she replied ... "I don't know. Buy something tacky at Party America?"

Um yes. Yes I would.

IMAGE: The materials...

Fog and the snow painting Sioux Falls like a giant frosted donut the past few days... it's so pretty I almost got in a wreck this morning from looking at trees and not the road.

Word is an ice storm will make tomorrow's get-to-work-unscathed chances pretty much the same.

So if the design doesn't give it away, I have a secret to tell... (sssssshhhhh)

I have issues.

And the #1 person smack in the crosshairs 24/7 is my loving husband (he knew what he was getting into), the Significant Other, otherwise known as the guy who listens to Dave Ramsey too much and therefore won't let me get new windows until we can actually pay for them.

He also won't let me get a new deck, new porch, new garage door sans hole, new floors, new bedroom furniture and remodeled bathrooms. But who's counting?

Anyway...

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(that's Tim on the east side of the pile)

(we have neighbors! who knew?)

Got to be a hero today. And the day before. (With Kristie and Mike.) Work stuff. But it was cool.

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Watership Down (by Richard Adams) is my favorite book. Has been since 7th grade. So last night I about busted in half when Colton said he wanted to read it - and he's already 50 pages in. And he loves it!

Wow. This must be how Archie Manning must have felt when his boys said they wanted to play football.

I'm such a geek. And now I've grown another one! (He took the book to daycare with him today, and was talking about it the whole way.)

So every year on his birthday (today!) I post about my little brother, Nate.

He passed away back in 2003 - and I usually write something about the car crash, or maybe a funny anecdote from growing up with him.

Not this time. Today I woke up to the sound of birds outside my window. It was such a beautifully unexpected sound (SD has been a frozen tundra lately). But whaddya know? This morning, birds.

Abbey crawled in next to me about 6:30am and we listened together in the dark. It was a great way to start the day. (Later Eric stampeded in, hollering, and no more birds after that.)

He whispered later; "Mom. I bet they were just finding food. Then they went back to their shelter. You know, six more weeks of winter?"

So in honor of spring - and how much I loved my brother - found this Flickr slideshow on the subject.

IMAGE: Kristie took this shot last month of a cardinal checking himself out in her rearview mirror. I've since thought she should submit it to some photo contest - but until she does, thought I would use it for this post.

Here's to spring!

Postsecret + YouTube:

My sweetie-pie niece turns 2 today! So this post is for Mollie (and any other parents of young kids who feel like looking):

Here is an all-inclusive site: parentingtoddlers.com.

Some other light reading: Let's Talk Potty Training ... Why Does My Toddler Eat Dog Food ... Coping with Difficult Behavior ... and my personal favorite ... How to Quickly Diffuse a Temper Tantrum. (Those last two my husband could probably use on me...)

Oh, and a few things you WON'T be doing for a while: The Chicago bar and nightclub scene ... and Relaxing on the couch.