generations x-y-z

we went to sonic the other day for lunch and the kids got these cool toys (i know it rarely happens when i don't throw the "meal toys" away on my way in the house, but these were really cool, fun and informative). they were called "smart cubes" and they worked like a rubix cube or a puzzle of sorts. when you put the different sides together it had different information about different things. one of the sides that i thought was really interesting was the generations side. it had a section on generation x and generation y and what makes them individual. so, i did a little additional searching.

generation x really had nothing good said about it. yes, for a lot of you that read my blog - that's us! so this is what i found . . . (and i really only added the positive stuff).

· 1965-1980
· 13th Generation to know the U.S. Flag
· Also called the “Baby Busters”
· Unsung generation
· Influenced and changed by social problems
· “Quiet workers”

the gen-xers at the orton house

generation y . . . i have one of these at my house, and even though isaac barely fits into these dates, he really fits this category.

· 1981-2001
· Generation “WHY”
· Witnessed 9-11 Attacks on the US and 2 wars in Iraq
· Peer Oriented
· Instant gratification
· Confident and Cooperative
· Eager to “fix” the world by solving it’s problems


my cute generation "WHY" guy

and last generation z.

· 2002 - present
· Active consumers
· Highly connected
· Lifelong use of communications and media technology
· Digital Natives
· More conservative
· Structured activities
· Strong social conscience and work ethic (at 5, 3 and 4 months? – we’ll see)

my cra-Z generation . . .

this weekend

we had such a wonderful weekend. it was so good, in fact, that kyle thanked my mom over and over again for the weekend.

we had the opportunity to spend the weekend in burley with my parents and family. my dad was being released from the stake presidency and bret and kaylin were blessing the twins. we were able to have lots of fun family time, and still squeeze in the very important trip to taco bandido. and get this - you can reserve a table at taco bandido. who knew? that way were were all able to take over the corner - i think we filled the whole corner and we were missing all the garrards - bret & kaylin, alan & josee, and mom & dad. but still fun and still good food. b (brenda) has pictures of the 11 grandkids in the corner and us adults at our table - hopefully she posts them, even though becky probably doesn't want her to.

nothing against taco b, but the highlight of the weekend was spending time and visiting with elder and sister hammond (quorum of the 70). they were staying at my parents house for the weekend. he and elder cook (12 apostles) were in the oakley, idaho stake to reorganize the stake presidency.

*funny side note - allen told dad that he made some "garrard for pres." signs for the road on the way up to oakley. dad was a little shocked, but elder hammond and elder cook got a good laugh out of that one.

back to the story . . . saturday night kyle attended the priesthood session. he said that it was a neat experience to ask elder cook questions and visit with him. kyle couldn't come up with a question to ask. he is still trying to come up with one. cool question - someone asked about military men and missionary moments. i don't know the full story, but elder cook told them that even though we don't like war and don't believe in it, anywhere the u.s. military has been, missionary work has followed.

then i joined kyle and my parents, b and al for the adult session. we were so blessed for being there. i can't write everything, but it was incredible. here we were listening to an apostle and really being spiritually fed. i know that all sounds cheesy or corny, but it really was so great. that night back at my parents, elder and sister hammond sat with our family and told us stories of their mission. the spirit in my parents' home is always very there, but this weekend it was so strong and witnessing to us that what we were hearing was true.

on sunday we all attended stake conference with my parents - everyone in the stake thought my dad was being called as the stake president since we were all there. surprise! he's not. now for the big question mark . . . what now for bill and sandy garrard? i can't wait to find out. sunday conference was just as wonderful. i would love to share all the things we heard and learned, but i could go on forever. so i have lots of notes from the weekend if you want to hear about it.

the twins - dayn and dacx - were blessed sunday afternoon. such neat blessings for such cute, sweet little guys. grandpa garrett blessed dayn and alan blessed dacx (i think). and yes, i think they are identical. it was such a neat afternoon. i love being with my family. i love the memories and laughing and everything.

so after all this blabbing - it was really just a great weekend. i'm so glad we were able to be there. and to my family - thank you for everything. i love you all!

first day of school

i can't believe it. i officially have three kids in school. how crazy is that? i am suddenly feeling old! i can clearly remember my first days of school - waiting for the school bus, pictures on the concrete wall with the rest of my siblings, new crayons, i loved the first day of school. but i have not loved my kids' first days of school. it is not right to have to send your kids off to someone else for a whole day.

isaac is in third grade at odyssey charter school (where he has learned that mom should have some capital letters in this post). he started school on august 18th, so he has been going for a couple weeks. he told me that he is checking things out to make sure that everything will be okay for when reagan goes to kindergarten next year. he loves school and i even tried to talk him into not starting school for a week, or even a day, but he told me "today is the first day of school and i am going, so get my breakfast." needless to say, i made him french toast, packed his lunch and sent him off to school.

reagan just started pre-k preschool today. she has not been a patient waiter and could not understand why isaac keeps going and going to school and she hasn't even started yet. reagan's teacher is miss jodi. she got to meet her last monday and visit her classroom and fix her "all about me" book. she chose to put yellow hair on her paper doll of herself because yellow is her favorite color and even though she has brown hair, she likes the yellow hair on herself better.

and ethan . . . he is way to young to start preschool, but i did it anyways. and he loved it. his first day of school was yesterday. we had a topsy-turvy day. we went from being so excited and wanting to leave now to go to school, to crying and not wanting to go. i was not about to push the issue. so, imagine my surprise when we got to his school, he posed for a picture, walked into his classroom, put his backpack away, looked at me and said "see ya later mom."