Important news!

I know it isn't time for another update, but we have breaking, important news at our house...we have a 6 year old! On Monday Blake got together at the city park with a bunch of his friends and celebrated his 6th birthday. It is hard to believe!






Party at the park! It looks like the candle is hypnotizing Blake.














What 6 year old wouldn't smile standing next to Alyssa?!










Also, on his birthday he learned how to ride his bike. Quite a day for a young man!




Big, bad, biker dude!












On a different, and much less important note, last Satuday I competed in and completed my first half-marathon (13.1 miles). I joined with 345 people from 31 states, Canada, and Japan to run the Hatfield/McCoy Reunion Marathon and Half-marathon. Not only did I finish (alive) but my time and placing actually surprised me.

I finished in 2:02:57 which was fifth in my age group and 32nd overall.

You can click http://yoursportingimage.com/Thumbs.asp?BibNbr=329&event=978&Locate=Locate to see a few pics. They are not worth buying but they are good for a few laughs!

At mile seven we began a 1 1/4 mile trip over Blackberry Mtn. and apparently the photographer was taking pics as we went up. It was challenging but I'm happy to say that at no point in the race did I feel as bad as I look in these pics!

You can see the results here: http://www.hatfieldmccoymarathon.com/results.cfm

Until next time...

Vacation 06!

We have just returned from vacation and boy did we have a great time! I don't know how the week (and 2 days) could have been any better.

We went to St. Augustine (the nation's oldest city), twice had a nearly deserted beach to ourselves at the Canaveral National Seashore, went to Disney's Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, attended 3 different congregations and met good brethren at all of them, took an airboat ride in the Everglades, and held a 12 foot albino Burmese python as well as a baby alligator.

Then there were the fun moments that didn't have anything to do with a ride or an attraction. It was just a great week all the way around! Here are some pics.




The kids on a cannon at St. Augustine















As we're leaving the beach...

















Kim and the kids with the big guy!















At the Animal Kingdom in front of a fake, but incredible upsidedown tree.











Think Molly liked the 12' snake???












Until next time...

Love from,
Keith, Kim, Molly, Kyle, and Blake

The latest

What a good and busy time it's been since the last update. So many good things have happened that I'm afraid I'll leave some out. Oh well, here's what I can remember.

Main Street had another outstanding missions workshop this year in late Feb. In conjunction with that, The Mbewe family, from Zambia by way of South Africa, stayed in Pikeville for almost 2 weeks. We really enjoyed them. Their youngest son, Elisha, became a fixture at our house.

The boys basketball season ended last Saturday. They really enjoyed it! And, considering they had never played before, they did very well!











Kim and Molly went horseback riding one Sunday afternoon with a group from the church. They look like real cowgirls, don't they! Yee-haw!


























This past week a group of students from Faulkner University came to Pikeville to work with us during spring break. Kim and I adopted four daughters for the week. They are great girls and the whole family loved having them with us.
Here you see Jamie and Jessica at preschool and Lexie and Tina at the airport.














And one last thing, the kids can't wait for Nana and PawPaw's arrival in Kentucky! Please hurry so they'll stop talking about it! :-)

Until next time, take care and God bless.
K,K,M,K,&B

Greetings from cold and snowy...Then warm and sunny....then cold again (you get the picture) Kentucky! Things are good at our house and we hope they are at your's too.

I've recently been to Cambodia for almost 2 weeks, with stops along the way in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. SE Asia isn't quite like anywhere I've ever been before. Leaving an affluent "Christian" nation for an impoverished, Buddhist country makes for some differences. The people are poor, but friendly and loving. They are without the stuff that we think makes us happy, but they are happy. The kids don't have gameboys but they smile almost constantly.

One lasting impression is the unbelievable volume of mopeds in the country. They use them because they are cheap to buy and operate and you can go thru traffic quicker with them. There were 1,448 at one time (I know because I counted 859 on one hand and 589 on the other!) :-)
Another thing I noticed there is how much they rely on luck. We stayed at the Lucky Star hotel, drank Lucky brand water, shopped at the Lucky supermarket, and even had a Luckyburger. Lucky was everywhere I went!
One day I got to ride an Asian elephant (smaller ears than their African cousins), and when I stood beside her she decided to sniff me or something. I'm not sure what she was doing, but it half-way freaked me out! Ever stared straight down 2 elephant nostrils???

All in all it was a good and very productive trip! Oh, by the way, I got 2 custom tailored, cashmere/silk blend suits for $75 each in Bangkok!!!






Back on the homefront, all is well. Kim's preschool teaching continues to go very well and this may be the best year ever. Also, she has begun a ladies Bible class at church and the first one was well attended. Go Kimmy, go Kimmy, go Kimmy...

Molly continues to be the top accelerated reader in the entire school. She has also taken up needlepoint and drinking hot tea. She jokes that she's like an old lady! She has also started doing something that cracks me up. Whenever she sees a pitiable or pitiful person, or someone who has goofed up, she says, "poor guy" and then snickers. It isn't in a mean way, just kinda cute.

The boys are both playing basketball. This past Saturday was their first game. In the pictures below, Kyle is 2nd from left on the red team and Blake is bottom left on the blue team. Kyle seems to really know what he's doing and is pretty good. Blake's inability to have a clue hasn't kept him from having a ball!

Kyle and I recently finished putting together the model airplane he got for Christmas. It was a challenge for us but we did it. Now he wants to do another. I can't believe he'll be 10 next week!

Before I left for Cambodia, Blake and I built a birdhouse. Man, does he love tools! He enjoyed it so much that he proudly exclaimed, "Dad, when I grow up I want to be a birdhouse builder!" I have since caught him trying to take it apart so that we could build it again!




















That's all for now. Take care and God bless!

The latest

Since the last post so many things have happened.

First, Kim and I went to Costa Rica for 5 days. I like giving presents that I don't have to wrap! What an incredible place!!! What did we do? Let's see...we saw an active volcano from it's rim (looking down into it - gasses spewing), saw a beautiful waterfall (we got to go behind it), ate local food many times, ate fruit straight from the trees, saw the largest population of crocodiles in the Amercias, took a zip-line canopy tour through the rainforst, ate a termite, boogieboarded in the Pacific ocean (Keith only), lazed on a deserted beach, saw iquanas and 3-toed sloths, hiked through the rainforest to another waterfall, saw white-faced and howler monkeys in the rainforest, saw a humpbacked whale in the Pacific (I was on the boogieboard and only about 200 yards from where it surfaced), rode horses on the beach at sunset, crossed a river in a compact car (4 times), met people from Ca., Co., Switzerland, & Germany, drank straight from coconuts, etc., etc. There was much more. What a great time!!!




We left warm Costa Rica and arrived in cold
Alabama. The weather was cold but the holiday with our family was just right. A great time was had by all!!!











This past weekend Kim fulfilled a lifelong dream - she got to see the Harlem Globetrotters. They were funny and it turns out the the main clown is from Kentucky! Can you believe they were in Pikeville???

December 2005

It's amazing how fast time is flying! In fact, tomorrow we leave for our Alabama Xmas. It's hard to believe that another year is almost gone!

In a previous post there was a pic of the house. But Kim later told me she liked another better. So, I'm including it this time.

This past Sunday the kids had a devo at church with a guest appearance from the Big Guy! (I'm not sure what Kyle was doing/thinking!

For the first time ever our house has Christmas lights! Molly and I put them up one coooold Saturday. We laughed the entire time; mostly at our complete lack of a clue about what we were doing!!! :-) We warmed up with a hot cup of tea afterward.

This week 3 guys from church and I went deer hunting in Boyd County, Ky which is up near Ohio. (pronounced: long O-something caught in your throat-hold the I-long O) The first day it snowed on us all day and the second morning it was 13 but later turned into a not-a-cloud-in-the-sky beautiful day. But the deer were smarter than we were and stayed somewhere warm!

This past Sunday we had our Holiday Open House and about 75 came and mingled. We all had a great time. To add to the holiday spirit, there were snow flurries and several saw deer on the way up the mountain.

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and that no one has a Xmas. If you do have a Xmas I hope it's more like Porky Pig's version and not Elvis'! :-)

Special announcement!!!

Last night (Nov. 30) Molly was baptized!!! It was a very happy and emotional night for us.

I've included 3 of the pictures for you to see and at the end is a piece I wrote this morning. I originally intended it for the bulletin but it became kinda personal (translation - it might embarrass Molly!) so I'm only sharing it with our family and friends.

THE DAY MY DAUGHTER BECAME MY SISTER

For years I trusted that the day would come. Even before her birth, as with all our children, we prayed for Molly’s spiritual well being. I had hoped the day would come that Molly would become a Christian by being baptized for the forgiveness of her sins. That day came on the last day of November, 2005 when I had the honor and privilege of seeing my daughter become my sister! What took me by surprise was the flood of emotions! She was baptized in water and I was baptized in emotions!

The day my daughter became my sister I was reminded how quickly time goes by. It seems, not like yesterday, but not long ago either, that I stood in D.W. McMillan hospital and held Molly for the first time. I was amazed at the amount of pride and joy that I felt. I had held many babies before but never my baby! That feeling was surpassed last night as our “baby” made the very mature decision to give her life to God. And as I was being forced to see how quickly time is moving, it hit me – she is half way to 23! That can’t be true...but it is! The moldable days are moving rapidly and I must use them wisely.

The day my daughter became my sister I was reminded that Molly is on loan to us. I am proud to say that she is my daughter but more accurately she has simply been entrusted to her mother and I. “Children are a gift from God” [Psa. 127:3] and we are stewards. The fact that I am accountable for what I do with this precious soul reminds me how serious this business is. I must provide the right example, give the proper direction, and instill Godly values in this young lady who has been loaned to me. If a friend loaned me their car I would be careful to not let so much as a scratch cross it’s surface. How much more care should I give God’s child?!

The day my daughter became my sister I was reminded how much joy faithful children bring their parents! Could there be any greater joy?! I believe that Christian parents would rather have faithful children than all the “stuff” the world has! All day 3 John 4 kept rolling around in my head. “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” We have a looooong way to go but I am more resolved than ever to do what it takes to get to Heaven and take my children with me!

I have baptized quite a few people over the years but never such with such emotion. Why wasn’t I even able to make the announcement without getting choked up and having to stop several times? Maybe this is why. That’s a lot to digest! The how’s and why’s aside, the day my daughter became my sister was one of the best days yet!


Keith Kasarjian

Welcome to the Kentucky Kasarjians webpage! This is our effort to keep our friends and family better informed about what in the world is going on with us. I'll try to keep it updated regularly. I hope you enjoy!!!




On Saturday, Nov. 19, the kids and I went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey cirucs at the East Ky. Expo. center. It was great!!! Here the kids are with the ringmaster Jon Weiss, of "The Amazing Race" fame.















The house has come a long way! We still have small things to do, but maybe it won't be as long as it has been. Y'all come!














Blake had his first kindergarten Thanksgiving feast. Here he is at home modeling his pilgrim-wear...over his Spiderman PJ's!








Until next time...Love from Keith, Kim, Molly, Kyle, and Blake!