Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we did something different - we left town and spent the holiday in Columbus, Ohio. On T'giving day, which was just a few days after I killed my first deer of the season (did you notice how subtle I was in mentioning that?!), we made the 4 hour drive to the heart of Buckeye land.

Just like Grandma always did, we ate our Thanksgiving meal at Golden Corral. Boy was it good! While we were there we went to a park, goofed off, shopped, ate, goofed off some more, shopped, ate, etc. But the main attraction was the Columbus Zoo; made famous by Jack Hanna.
















After spending most of the day at the zoo we came back at night to see the lights. There must have been a zillion!














But the best part was the the ice skating. The kids and I ice skated...outside...bundled up...while Christmas music played! It felt like we were in a Christmas movie! We had a blast!

There were a million laughs on the trip but here's one that stands out: I had been pronouning "Ohio" in a yankee-mocking sorta way (Long O - something caught in your throat- Long I - Long O). After a day Blake was imitating me perfectly...but was doing so very loudly in crowds of Buckeyes! Yikes!

A few days ago Kyle's basketball team got to play an exhibition game at the civic center. They played during halftime betweens from Long Beach, CA and Louisville.














For those we will see during Xmas, we'll see you soon! For those we won't, we hope you have a Merry Christmas!

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

An overdue update...

My apologies to those who enjoy our family webpage for being so tardy with an update. I could make a million excuses (and a few of them would be true!!!) but I'll just get on with it.

I spent the last half of September in Africa. The time was divided almost evenly between Arusha, Tanzania and Johannesburg, South Africa. This wasn't my first time to either place but there were many "firsts". For starters, the outbound was the craziest trip I've ever been on. Due to delays, etc. it took me 5 flights, in 5 countries, on 5 different airlines to get to Tanzania! But when I finally arrived everything was outstanding, as usual.

In addition to the normal teaching, preaching, etc. I got to do a couple of incredible "firsts": hunt in TZ and golf in SA. The hunt: we hunted in the absolute middle of nowhere (more than 3 1/2 hrs. from town) and at the insistence of a Masaai family, we camped in their "yard". They told us there are lions in the area but that they wouldn't bother us. Good enough for me! We enjoyed fresh gazelle cooked over a fire and more stars than you could ever imagine. I've only seen the stars that beautiful one other time.

I'm pictured with some of my new freinds and our luxurious accomadations.















In South Africa I met people from 11 different African nations, preached to over 600, golfed on a course that had wildlife on every hole, and experienced an baptistry overflowing while I was preaching! Ever run from water while 600 people watch in laughter???

By the time I got home I had made at least one takeoff and/or landing at 10 different airports, including Zanzibar! It was just an incredible trip all the way around. It wasn't grueling; just exhilarating!

Meanwhile, back at home, we've had the most beautiful fall since moving here. All the stars lined up just right for the most colorful leaves we've seen. Mom and Dad K happened to be here during the peak and the whole family spent the day at The Breaks.

That morning I ran in my 2nd 10K. I took more than 6 minutes off my time from last year. At that pace I might be competitive in 2 years! :-)

This year's Trick-or-Treating brought in a mighty fine haul of goodies. Molly was a hippie, Kyle wore some freaky mask that bled, and Blake was Darth Vader (he calls it Dark Vader!).

This past Saturday the boys and I went to the UGA-UK game in Lexington. The score didn't end up in our favor (not many have this year, you know) but we had a great time. I promise: Kyle had been smiling! Really...I promise!






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

The latest from our house..

This past summer has been the fastest one on record at our house. So fast that we weren't even ready for the kids to go back to school! It flew by because it was busy, but not too busy and becasue we got to do a lot of fun things together as a family. This update is a brief recap.



Blake participated in the "Future Champions" football camp. It lasted for a week and he placed 2nd in the skills competition in his age group. He's shown here (on the right) taking a break.










Kim and the kids (I went once) helped out doing some farm chores for a place that uses horses as therapy for children with special needs. Their pay was to get to ride the horses. Here are the 3 Muskateers!








Off and on all summer we had access to friends' pools which we used for hours and hours. We swam, dived, jumped, and slid til our skin is brown and our toes are wrinkled! Molly and Kyle and I also made up goofy jumps and dives and Kim served as the official judge of our big splash competitions. (Kyle actually did get his hair wet!)






The first week of August, Kim and 7 kids from church (including our 3) went to West Virginia Christian Youth Camp and I spoke on a lectureship in Panama. I enjoyed my trip but nowhere near as much as they enjoyed camp . I don't beleive they could have enjoyed it any more than they did!






On my way home from Panama I picked up the pre-arranged (but still a surprise) newest member of our family. Everyone was pleasantly surprised to say the least. The first thought Kim had when she saw him was that he was a rascal...and that name has stuck. Her intuition has been proven accurate!Rascal is on the left and is pictured with his sister.






That's all for now...

With love,
Keith, Kim, Molly, Kyle, and Blake

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!