I don't think anyone really likes construction, it causes traffic jams and delays and confusing lane shifts that almost cause accidents but lately I hate construction even more than usual. That is because the idiots running the I-15 Core project have decided it is a good idea to shut down one of the four lanes between American Fork and Pleasant Grove in both directions, essentially meaning no matter what time of day you travel there will be some kind of traffic jam. This also means it takes me an extra 15 minutes to get to and from work, an extra 15 minutes on top of my already hour-long commute and the 9 hour days I am currently working because of my schedule this month. That means from the time I leave my house in the morning to the time I get home at night I have been gone for 11 and half hours. This leaves very little time for other important things like working out (I was at the gym until 9:30 last night), cooking yummy dinners and probably most important just chilling and watching T.V with John. And the construction puts me in a bad mood which means by the time I actually get home I am grumpy and sometimes take it out on John, not very nice but true.
Let's just hope this lane closure doesn't last very long.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
The Important Things
Sometimes all it takes is one big shocking thing to happen to make you remember what the important things in life are. A good friend of my grandma's just passed away, he wasn't old maybe early 50s, as old as my dad. He was training to run ragnar and had a massive heart attack and died. While I didn't know him particularly well it makes me think about my own life and what is really important. Here I am running around trying to find turquoise cupcake liners and wondering if anybody is going to be able to go to my wedding dress fitting with me, while girls my age are mourning the loss of their dad. It makes me think about all the times I have called to talk to my mom but my dad answers and instead of taking 5 minutes to ask him how he is I just rush on with my life. It is just a reminder that important things aren't money and possessions and wedding plans but the awesome people we get to call family and share this life with, because in the end that is all that really matters.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
1 Year
One year ago today John proposed to me and tomorrow it will be 3 years since we started dating. It is crazy how fast time flies! I can't even believe we have been engaged for a whole year! So I am going to dedicating this post to John and the things I love about him.
I love how he can make me laugh in almost any situation. I love that he will do pretty much anything for me, including going to the store at 10:30 p.m. to get me cough syrup and tissues and sitting with me at the pharmacy for 2 hours at 11 p.m. when he had to work at 6 the next morning. He love me even when I am fat!! He says I am not fat but that isn't the point. My family loves him and he is so cute with McKenna!
In exactly 3 months and 1 week from right now I will be getting ready to get married! I am super excited and can't wait!
I love how he can make me laugh in almost any situation. I love that he will do pretty much anything for me, including going to the store at 10:30 p.m. to get me cough syrup and tissues and sitting with me at the pharmacy for 2 hours at 11 p.m. when he had to work at 6 the next morning. He love me even when I am fat!! He says I am not fat but that isn't the point. My family loves him and he is so cute with McKenna!
In exactly 3 months and 1 week from right now I will be getting ready to get married! I am super excited and can't wait!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Not in a Blogging Mood
I apologize for being so tardy with my blogging but I just haven't been in the mood lately. Not that I am having a bad week or anything, on the contrary life is going great right now but I just haven't felt like I had anything super important I needed to share with the blogging world. So here are a few updates.
We are now 99 days away from the wedding!! It is so crazy that it is coming so fast but I am getting really excited.
Spring is also coming which makes me almost as excited as the wedding. The sun is shining and it is warm enough to leave the house without a coat or big sweater. Since I live in Utah I know this won't last forever but I am enjoying and look forward to the day when spring is here to stay.
I have lost 10 pounds. Yup that is right, 10 pounds. I owe it all to my personal trainer and her genius but it is so exciting to finally lose weight after trying and failing for such a long time!
Well that is really all that seems to be happening in the life of Paige right now. I will try to be a better blogger.
We are now 99 days away from the wedding!! It is so crazy that it is coming so fast but I am getting really excited.
Spring is also coming which makes me almost as excited as the wedding. The sun is shining and it is warm enough to leave the house without a coat or big sweater. Since I live in Utah I know this won't last forever but I am enjoying and look forward to the day when spring is here to stay.
I have lost 10 pounds. Yup that is right, 10 pounds. I owe it all to my personal trainer and her genius but it is so exciting to finally lose weight after trying and failing for such a long time!
Well that is really all that seems to be happening in the life of Paige right now. I will try to be a better blogger.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Getting Closer
After being engaged for nearly a year it is finally starting to feel like this wedding is actually going to happen. John, myself and my mom and dad went to Millennial Falls today to pick out almost all of our wedding stuff. We chose invitation designs, table linen colors, food, cake, drink options and laid out basically how the wedding is going to go. The only thing we really have left to do is meet with the florist in a month or so and get that all planned out. It is so exciting! I danced around squealing for a good part of the day because it is so nice to finally be doing something! If you can't tell I am very excited!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
I. Want. Cupcakes
Well not really multiple cupcakes but just one cupcake. There are several very delicious looking cupcakes sitting a mere 10 feet from my desk right now. The kinds you see in windows of bakeries and on cupcake wars. I want to eat one so so bad. I have been doing so well with my diet plan and I don't want to ruin all that for just one cupcake! But they look sooo good!!
To deter myself I thought about how many calories must be in one of those cupcakes, I would say 500 is a conservative guess but we will go with that. In order for me to burn off 500 calories I would have to go running for 30 minutes. 30 minutes sweating it out on the treadmill for ONE cupcake. I am trying to stay strong but will three hours of work left it could be a hard battle.
To deter myself I thought about how many calories must be in one of those cupcakes, I would say 500 is a conservative guess but we will go with that. In order for me to burn off 500 calories I would have to go running for 30 minutes. 30 minutes sweating it out on the treadmill for ONE cupcake. I am trying to stay strong but will three hours of work left it could be a hard battle.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Its not the 1950s anymore
The sex education debate currently happening in Utah is getting out of control. Representative Bill Wright, who is sponsoring a bill to make sex education almost nonexistent is Utah has been quoted as saying, "Why don’t we just be honest with them up front that sex outside marriage is devastating?” I have also read this comment in several other places that sex outside of marriage is destructive and life-ruining. The best response I have heard yet was published as a letter to editor in the Salt Lake Tribune the other day. You can read it for yourself but basically it said that in this person's experience sex outside of marriage hasn't been devastating but in fact fulfilling, satisfying and completely disease and child free.
Yes I can agree that abstinence is the only SURE way to prevent children born out of wedlock and the only sure way to prevent disease but as the writer of the letter to the editor so kindly pointed out sex INSIDE marriage can also be devastating. Unwanted children can also be born to married couples!
Let's be honest this isn't the 1950s anymore, people have sex before they get married often times with many people and still go on to live perfectly happy lives. Children and teens are be bombarded with sexual images and information that may or may not be correct. Some teens, not all but some, are going to have sex regardless of what anyone says about waiting until marriage. News flash, not everyone in Utah is Mormon!! Not every child in school, in fact I would say the majority are not being taught about sex and contraceptives at home. By creating an education system in which talking about contraceptives would be against the law legislators are only creating a bigger problem. It is a disservice to teens and not just the "promiscuous" ones to not teach them about all aspects of sex education. There are plenty of married couples that could benefit from knowing how a condom or birth control works.
I just don't understand how these legislators can think that this is really the best option. Just because contraceptives and sex before marriage don't coincide with your beliefs doesn't mean everyone feels the same way. Fine teach kids that waiting until marriage is the best option but also give the facts and tools to protect themselves in case they chose not to wait. Because not arming them with information is really creating a situation in which sex can be devastating.
Yes I can agree that abstinence is the only SURE way to prevent children born out of wedlock and the only sure way to prevent disease but as the writer of the letter to the editor so kindly pointed out sex INSIDE marriage can also be devastating. Unwanted children can also be born to married couples!
Let's be honest this isn't the 1950s anymore, people have sex before they get married often times with many people and still go on to live perfectly happy lives. Children and teens are be bombarded with sexual images and information that may or may not be correct. Some teens, not all but some, are going to have sex regardless of what anyone says about waiting until marriage. News flash, not everyone in Utah is Mormon!! Not every child in school, in fact I would say the majority are not being taught about sex and contraceptives at home. By creating an education system in which talking about contraceptives would be against the law legislators are only creating a bigger problem. It is a disservice to teens and not just the "promiscuous" ones to not teach them about all aspects of sex education. There are plenty of married couples that could benefit from knowing how a condom or birth control works.
I just don't understand how these legislators can think that this is really the best option. Just because contraceptives and sex before marriage don't coincide with your beliefs doesn't mean everyone feels the same way. Fine teach kids that waiting until marriage is the best option but also give the facts and tools to protect themselves in case they chose not to wait. Because not arming them with information is really creating a situation in which sex can be devastating.
Friday, March 2, 2012
The Things People Say
As a journalist it is standard practice not to comment on stories you have written, especially in response to others. Some days I really just want to break that rule. Here is an example. I wrote a story the other day about a family who has 3 babies all born on consecutive leap years the lead said, "The odds of having a baby born on Leap Day is one in 1,461, but the odds of having three babies born on consecutive Leap Days are less than 1 in a billion. David and Louise Estes of Payson beat those odds and became only the second family on record to have three babies born on Leap Day when Jade was welcomed into the world Wednesday morning at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center."
This is the comment I got in return:
Dear Paige Fieldsted:
I’m guessing you may be a Utah native and have thus been shielded from participation in sex education courses. For your future reference, you should know that pregnancies are not completely random events. Parents can decide when (within about a week or two) during any given year they want their baby to be born. Thus, if the parents have that goal, the odds of having a baby on Leap Day are not one in 1461 (three years of 365 days, and one year of 366 days = 1461 days) as you report, but are closer to one in about 7 to 14. Given this one-to-two-week uncertainty, the odds of having three consecutive Leap Day babies are not less than one in a billion, but more on the order of one in 7x7x7 = 343 to one in 14x14x14 = 2744; not great odds, but then not the miracle you imply, either.
However, if the births are all induced as they were in this case, the parents can choose (with favorable fertility and well-timed impregnation) to have the babies be born precisely when planned, making the odds of having three consecutive Leap Day babies approach 100%. David and Louise obviously understand this, and have planned their family accordingly. I suggest you sign up for either a sex education class or an elementary statistics class before you again attempt to mislead us all into thinking something inconceivable (pun intended) has happened.
Since I can't respond on our website I will respond here.
Dear Mr. Dumbass,
I assume you have never had any children and that you must be a man because you apparently don't know that nothing in pregnancy and childbirth is a sure thing. First of all the first baby born on leap year was an accident meaning the odds really were 1 in 1461. The second leap day baby born was also so an accident. Louise herself said it was a joke when she suggested it but it happened to work out. Only the third baby was planned to be born on leap day.
Second of all, even if you want to have a baby at a certain time it might not work out. It can sometimes take weeks or even months to get pregnant once you decide to try. And even then babies are anything but predictable. Case in point, another woman also featured in our paper was trying to have her baby on leap day but he just wouldn't wait and was born two hours too soon.
Also, the third Leap Day baby was 5 days past her due date, the mom herself said she wasn't sure if she would make it.
So the point is even if you are trying to have a baby on a certain date and are induced the chances of having 3 babies born all on the same day, a day that happens to only come once every 4 years, are slim. Maybe not 1 in a billion but much higher than you indicate and definitely no where near 100%. Babies and pregnancies are unpredictable.
Also please don't assume that just because I live in Utah and write for a Utah County paper that I have never had proper sex education. I understand that couples could conceivably plan down to the minute when they want their babies to be born, but unlike you, I also understand that pregnancies don't always happen they way they are planned. Otherwise there would be no need for NICU's or induced labors.
So I suggest you think about your comments before you put them out there for the whole world to see.
This is the comment I got in return:
Dear Paige Fieldsted:
I’m guessing you may be a Utah native and have thus been shielded from participation in sex education courses. For your future reference, you should know that pregnancies are not completely random events. Parents can decide when (within about a week or two) during any given year they want their baby to be born. Thus, if the parents have that goal, the odds of having a baby on Leap Day are not one in 1461 (three years of 365 days, and one year of 366 days = 1461 days) as you report, but are closer to one in about 7 to 14. Given this one-to-two-week uncertainty, the odds of having three consecutive Leap Day babies are not less than one in a billion, but more on the order of one in 7x7x7 = 343 to one in 14x14x14 = 2744; not great odds, but then not the miracle you imply, either.
However, if the births are all induced as they were in this case, the parents can choose (with favorable fertility and well-timed impregnation) to have the babies be born precisely when planned, making the odds of having three consecutive Leap Day babies approach 100%. David and Louise obviously understand this, and have planned their family accordingly. I suggest you sign up for either a sex education class or an elementary statistics class before you again attempt to mislead us all into thinking something inconceivable (pun intended) has happened.
Since I can't respond on our website I will respond here.
Dear Mr. Dumbass,
I assume you have never had any children and that you must be a man because you apparently don't know that nothing in pregnancy and childbirth is a sure thing. First of all the first baby born on leap year was an accident meaning the odds really were 1 in 1461. The second leap day baby born was also so an accident. Louise herself said it was a joke when she suggested it but it happened to work out. Only the third baby was planned to be born on leap day.
Second of all, even if you want to have a baby at a certain time it might not work out. It can sometimes take weeks or even months to get pregnant once you decide to try. And even then babies are anything but predictable. Case in point, another woman also featured in our paper was trying to have her baby on leap day but he just wouldn't wait and was born two hours too soon.
Also, the third Leap Day baby was 5 days past her due date, the mom herself said she wasn't sure if she would make it.
So the point is even if you are trying to have a baby on a certain date and are induced the chances of having 3 babies born all on the same day, a day that happens to only come once every 4 years, are slim. Maybe not 1 in a billion but much higher than you indicate and definitely no where near 100%. Babies and pregnancies are unpredictable.
Also please don't assume that just because I live in Utah and write for a Utah County paper that I have never had proper sex education. I understand that couples could conceivably plan down to the minute when they want their babies to be born, but unlike you, I also understand that pregnancies don't always happen they way they are planned. Otherwise there would be no need for NICU's or induced labors.
So I suggest you think about your comments before you put them out there for the whole world to see.
Well Hello Winter
After months of kind of pretending to be winter, mother nature has finally sent actual winter. The only problem is I am now ready for it to be spring. March 1st is the not the time for the biggest snow storm we've seen this winter. March 1st is the time I start thinking about how soon I will be able to wear sandals again.
Not to mention winter and my commute are not friends. On Wednesday it took me an hour and half to get home because it was snowing and the wind was blowing and the roads were a mess. I, however would honestly take that over driving to work this morning. The roads were wet from the melting snow but not wet enough to make windshield wipers effective, just wet enough that you have to clean your window every 5 seconds or you won't be able to see. Which brings me to the other problem, it is very sunny today and the wet roads combined with the glare of the sun make it almost impossible to tell if you are driving in one lane or two. Add the construction nonsense on top that and it is a miracle there weren't a million accidents.
I can only hope winter's late arrival will also mean a short stay and pretty soon I can blog about how I love spring time!
Not to mention winter and my commute are not friends. On Wednesday it took me an hour and half to get home because it was snowing and the wind was blowing and the roads were a mess. I, however would honestly take that over driving to work this morning. The roads were wet from the melting snow but not wet enough to make windshield wipers effective, just wet enough that you have to clean your window every 5 seconds or you won't be able to see. Which brings me to the other problem, it is very sunny today and the wet roads combined with the glare of the sun make it almost impossible to tell if you are driving in one lane or two. Add the construction nonsense on top that and it is a miracle there weren't a million accidents.
I can only hope winter's late arrival will also mean a short stay and pretty soon I can blog about how I love spring time!
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