A new fantastic point of view…

We moved Memorial day weekend. A bunch of my friends from church and Mom’s friends from work helped us out. Mom and I love the new place, but the cats weren’t so sure at first. Thunder refused to leave the basement for almost an entire day.

Creeper soon warmed up to the new place and started racing up and down the stairs. I think she forgot she’s no longer a kitten. But I’m glad she’s staying active. She’s got a belly that could stand to be reduced a bit. It flops round between her legs in the most unflattering, albeit hysterical way.

But Thunder has finally come round and relaxed. He’s even found his favorite new spot in the house.

I can go the distance...

On my way to work this morning traffic stopped as 70+ high school kids jogged through every single crosswalk in downtown Naperville. I remember them being out last summer. Perhaps they're some co-ed track and field club. Or a running day camp. Or the newest dating wave sweeping "kids today". What better way to meet that special someone than by running beside them, limbs akimbo, sweating profusely, and sucking wind?

All I know is that if they had any sense, they would have still been in bed, enjoying their summer freedom while it lasts!

We’re family, me and you Part 3…

…Which is the only way I can explain how one of the skirts I used to wear in high school ended up in Gigi’s closet. I don’t remember getting rid of it. Usually we just filled up Hefty bags and dropped them off at her house, so she could take them to the Sonshine Closet. Apparently she riffled through the bags before taking them.

So when I saw the skirt in her closet this Saturday I started to laugh. And I actually started to walk out of the room so I could find Gigi and tease her about wearing one of her granddaughter’s cast off clothing. And then I remembered, I couldn’t tease her because she was no longer there. And then I realized how much I was going to miss her.

It sounds cliché, but I really didn’t realize how much she helped shape me into who I am. I actually had a hard time spending time with her as I got older. Our personalities clashed and I started to distance myself. I preferred spending time with Gramps who would sit in silence and let me talk (proving that Gigi and I are more alike then I sometimes care to admit.) But she loved me, and I loved her. And here’s how the conversation would have played out if I’d had the chance to ask her about my skirt:

Beth: Gigi, what are you doing with one of my old skirts?
Gigi: You didn’t want it anymore. It’s a perfectly good skirt.
Beth: It’s a little too hip and stylish for you, don’t you think?
Gigi: You’re such a sassy mouth. I don’t know where you get it from. Your mother I suppose.
Beth: Yeah and where did she get it from?
Gigi: Her father.

Then she’d try and offer me a Halls lozenge, but I’d swipe some Big Red gum instead and we’d sit down to a game of Uno. Where we’d keep score. We score Uno in the Gasper family because Uno is serious business.

P.S. Sally asked me if I wanted the skirt back, but I said no. I’d given it away once for a reason, there was no point to take it back again. But I did take one of Gigi’s sweet vests with lace flowers and a pocket watch chain on it. And I think she’d be tickled pink to think that one her granddaughters thought something in her wardrobe was cool enough to wear.

(Three generations of Gasper women.)

We’re family, me and you Part 2…

I should give some back story. My grandmother was the queen of volunteering. You name the Christian organization, and she probably volunteered there at some time. One of the programs she ran at church was called the Sonshine Closet. It was basically a closet behind Fellowship Hall where church members could drop off their used clothes and household goods – sort of like Goodwill. Then, one Thursday a month, Gigi and her team would sort through the clothes, box them up, and send them to different local and even international ministries. But if something caught their eye, they would pull it for themselves and move on.

Gigi may have pulled for her whole family, but I can only speak for what she pulled for me. She pulled normal clothes for me, but she also pulled clothes for my dress-up collection. She was a firm believer that kids should use their imaginations, but also that they didn’t need to spend lots of money to do so. She was always sending me items for my dress-ups that she bought from Goodwill or pulled from the Sonshine Closet. I don’t think there was any brand-new store bought article of clothing in my dress-up chest.

(The elusive bag-lady fairy.)

After we moved to Cincinnati, I would spend my summer days with Gramps and Gigi. And one Thursday a month I helped her with the Sonshine closet. If I found anything I liked I asked permission to keep it. Sometimes she said no. But sometimes she said yes. Mostly I pulled things that I wanted to keep in my costume collection. I was older, so it was no longer considered a dress-up collection. Costume collection had a more mature ring to it. Once I was allowed to keep a powder blue tuxedo I found. Completely intact with jacket, pants, reversible vest, and clip-on bow tie. The only thing missing was the ruffled shirt, but I’m pretty sure that got sorted in with the women’s clothing.

And sometimes Mom and I would make our own donations….

We’re family, me and you Part 1…

(Gigi and I at Burger King, back when Burger King was cool.)

This weekend I went to Cincinnati for my grandmother’s memorial service. Even though I got a chance to say goodbye, it’s hard to believe she’s actually gone. She was such a vibrant woman who made no apologies for how wonderfully insane she could be. I hope I can earn the right to be like that when I’m a grandmother.

My family had the overwhelming task of cleaning out Gramps and Gigi’s condo. Gramps has moved into a nice little apartment, but he could not take everything with him. My grandparents have successfully been squirreling away things since the 1800’s. No joke. I now own a photo of some great-great-great-great relatives who lived in England. I also now own some of their clothes.

It was during the middle of cleaning on Saturday that it finally hit home that I wouldn’t see her again on this earth. I was cleaning out her closet with my cousins, Sally and Lynn. Gramps had asked that as we look through her clothes that we take anything we wanted. Well, there isn’t much in the wardrobe of an 80-year-old woman that appeals to her 20-year-old granddaughters, but we dutifully looked through each piece.

Halfway through the closet, Sally said, “Hey Beth, there’s a skirt in here that you may want. It’s kind of pretty and it’s long” (I’m the tallest female cousin.) I turned and looked at the skirt. It was a long, black skirt. Nothing special, and not really my style. I was about to turn and move on, when something caught my eye. At the bottom of the skirt there were little grey swirl designs. I started laughing, which earned a quizzical look from Sally….

Let's go fly a kite...

Today, my wonderful friend Johnso took me on an adventure to a kite festival. I love kites. So colorful, so much fun to fly, so deadly when you lose control and they come crashing down to earth on unsuspecting bystanders. I was expecting a few people out flying some standard kites, and perhaps some box kites included in the mix. Oh Beth, how naive you were.


These were launched by a self-professed kite lunatic. Crazy or not, these things were awesome! I could have watched them for hours. I was perfectly ready to plop on the ground and start constructing stories about how the squid was trying hard to make friends, but the other characters were freaked out by the fact the squid had no mouth. But the ground was wet, so we moved on.

They had 4-string kites which are apparently the new wave of kite design (Johnso's dad owns one). I watched synchronized kite flying, something I had no idea existed. This whole thing is a documentary waiting to be filmed. There was even some animosity between the 4-string kite fliers and the animal kite fliers. Clearly, they each thought the other had no idea what true kite flying was. And stuck in the middle was a girl who just wished someone would launch the flying cow kite she saw for sale.

Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah…

This past weekend I spent a glorious time up in Greenlake, WI for my church’s 3rd Annual Girls’ Getaway. It was nice to see so many of my friends. I haven’t been to small group or the EDGE in over a month because of various trips, illnesses, and the big move. I was feeling very disconnected.

My official role on the HER ministry is The Face of HER. Basically I’m the one who makes all the announcements at church and I emcee the Girls’ Getaways. All the fun and none of the work. I kid, I kid. I do find emceeing a little stressful at times. Let’s face it, I’m weird. I worry that my weirdness will scare off women from participating in activities. But so far the response to my awkward pauses and random excitement about card stock paper hasn’t scared anyone away… that I’m aware of. They even take things like this in stride:


Over the course of the weekend I got to have some much needed quiet time with God, participate in some corporate worship, reconnect with my friends and get to know new ones, ride a boat, weed a garden, play some cornhole, and even ride a jet ski!


Don’t let this picture fool you. I did not drive. I rode on the back, hanging on for dear life and screaming the entire time as I was doused with ice cold lake water.