Projects

Something you should know about me: I love projects. When I was little, my projects consisted of things like building a really cool Barbie house, rigging our tree fort so that it had electricity or organizing secret clubs. At age 10, my best friend Samantha and I created our own a capella group called “Sugar and Spice”. We wrote lots of songs including our most famous single “Rain in the Summer” and performed for our families. We even played with the idea of organizing a summer “Kids Kamp” so that we could earn money to buy cool outfits for our performances.

When I was 11 years old I wrote a script for and produced an incredibly cheesy movie called “The Day Before Christmas”. My siblings, some friends and I were the actors and we presented it to our parents as a Christmas gift. Watching this movie now, years later, my siblings like to point out how “bossy” I was while making it. I remember wanting the video to be perfect. I had spent so much time writing the scrip, organizing props and arranging for a video camera and no one else had even memorized their lines! (Despite the fact that I had made everyone his or her own copy and distributed them weeks in advance.) So throughout the movie you can see me sending silent cues to people, reminding them of what they should be doing. Being an 11-year-old Writer/Director/Producer/Actor sure was stressful but I loved it.

Although my many endeavors did not turn out exactly as I envisioned that they would, they are great memories and this video in particular became a glimpse into our past that is really fun for everyone involved.

My Dad and I are very similar in this regard. He has done lots of remodeling on our house, carved 3 totem poles, made his own crampons for a winter hike he and my brother, Max, did together. He has built Barbie houses and tree houses and baby doll cradles. I remember him getting excited whenever I had to do a science project because he loved coming up with ideas and helping us put it all together. Just recently he built a contraption so that we could more easily pick black berries in our neighborhood without getting stuck with the prickles. It is a long wooden pole with a pot at the end of it, which he would reach deep under the blackberry bush. Then he would shake the top of the bush so that the ripe berries would fall into the container. It didn’t work as well as we had hoped but it was a good idea and made me smile.

Although I am older now and my projects have evolved into something a little more sophisticated (I hope), I still love taking them on. It is a frequent thing for me to admire something beautiful that someone has created (a song, piece of art, a delicious dish) and think, “I can do that too!” Then I set out on an adventure to figure it out for myself. I tend to have a “just go with it” attitude, though, and sometimes cut corners, trying to simplify and be more efficient. Sometimes it works great and other times…well, it just doesn’t. Words of wisdom for you: Don’t cut corners when you are reupholstering furniture!

Mostly, I love to learn new things and working on projects is a great way to set goals and motivate myself.

Now that you have all of this background information, I will tell you that I am working on a NEW project, which I am extremely excited about. I have been scheming about this one since I was serving a full time mission, two years ago and am finally getting started on it.

I am currently making videos of each of my grandparents, interviewing them about their lives, values, advice, capturing them in this moment so that my children and grandchildren will know them. Each have powerful lessons to share. Even if no one else will ever them, it has been an incredible experience for me already. But my plan is that I will eventually distribute them so that everyone in my family will have a copy.

I’ve had the opportunity during the last month to travel to Michigan and to interview my Father’s parents, Lillian and Paul Peet. It was wonderful to ask them questions and to watch and listen as they told of their conversions to the gospel of Jesus Christ, memories of their parents, of their children when they were young, their marriage and to hear advise that they wish to pass down to future generations. I have spent a little bit of time with my other grandpa, Fred Strong, and am planning an interview with my grandma, Connie Bailey.

I realize that this project probably makes me a total nerd but I guess I’m okay with that because it is going to be awesome in the end!

If anyone has ever done any kind of project like this before, do you have any advise? Tips?