HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACI! WE LOVE YOU!!

Traci's life started in Bozeman, Montana.  Here is a 4 generation picture with her mom, her grandmother, Donna McCann and her great-grandmother, Willa Lee.  Her grandmother is near the end of her life now, but it is certain that both grandmothers were in love with this little darling girl from the very beginning!

Traci has a part of her that is reticent - I think you can see it here.  Also, the sweet trust that is such a precious part of childhood.

 Traci is a decisive, willful person.  She is fun-loving and fun! Traci is smart! She served a mission in the (unmodernized area) of Bacolod, Philipines, learning to speak the native language of Tagolog.

                     DESIGNING CIRCLES

“So much of life is spent in the designing of circles.  Many circles carefully keep other people out.  There are private rooms and houses, private clubs and offices, private roads and beaches - all with the same message: Stay Out! Not that circles that keep others out don't have their place. We are all porcupines, and our quills are less troublesome if there is a little space around us.” (Author unknown)

But sometimes that “little space” around us becomes it’s own exclusive circle. Too often they are designed to accommodate those that are too busy, too proud, or too afraid to draw a circle bigger than themselves.  Some circles with the best of intentions still draw lines at the edges of their own race, their own social and economic group, their own type or religion.

So Heavenly Father created the best designed of circles: family circles.  They're characterized by their ability to link one expanding circle to another.  Family circles have amazing powers of expansion.  They are eternal in nature and are particularly designed to cultivate love and service.  They try soooooo much harder than other circles, whose messages do often say "Stay Out".

Heavenly Father knew that in circling each other, some of us would become lost, discouraged, forgotten or overlooked.  So He took the best designed of circles - family circles - and empowered them with prayer.  These, now empowered family circles, have the strength to gather us in, regardless of who we've become or where we are.  They are inclusive and flexible, to allow opportunities for repentance and forgiveness and hope for a better day.  Their eternal nature makes it possible to send the spirit’s invitations to the lost, discouraged, forgotten or overlooked, saying, “come in, come back, you’re always welcome”.  Designing Circles you see, is quite a serious matter for you and me – link in, I’m here for you, are you here for me?   

1^st paragraph (Author Unknown) – Remaining thoughts (Cynthia Carlsen)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN THOMAS CARLSEN!

It's hard to determine from looking at the card, but Sean was born at 3:29 in the afternoon.  He was the baby that saved us from paying an anesthesiologist and delivery room charge because he surprised doctors and nurses by arriving in the (labor bed) directly after they said he "wasn't progressing".  For all you modern mothers, that was in the horse and buggy days when they still took the mom off to a delivery room without invitation to family and friends!