Really????

WARNING: the following post is a result of having nothing to do at work and doing lots of internet window shopping and may not have any pertinence at all, but afforded me the opportunity to do something for 15 minutes.

A furry purse and a purse that looks like a school project!? Someone would actually purchase these insanely ugly things? It's amazing that just because it's a Versace or Fendi original people would purchase them. I'm a firm believer of purchasing things if you LIKE them not if you like the label that's on them. These two are good examples of this.

The furry blue number is a Versace that retails for $4,710.00, but you can get it today at Bluefly.com for the very low bargain-basement price of $2,722.54! (NOTE: it is made of fox fur...so if you're an animal lover you might want to stay away from this one) This one reminds me of those furry-topped pencils that Cher on Clueless made so popular. They're so phat.

The art project gone wrong is made by Fendi and retials for $5,190.00 and is on sale at Bluefly.com for $2,699.59. And this one isn't even made of leather...it's woven nylon.

(I don't want you all to get the wrong idea. I DO have a job...they just haven't released me into the water on my own yet. But I have been told that in our department we are either EXTREMELY busy or EXTREMELY bored. We'll see how that pans out.)

Evidence

Here's some evidence of Phil and I's trip to San Diego for Dan's wedding (see...palm trees!). We forgot our cameras and so we relied on others to snap photos for us. I rarely like pictures taken of me, but I think Brittney did a fantastic job on these.

The Singer Brothers (staring into the sun)
Matt, Phil, Dan, and Nate

We had a great time in San Diego. It's funny because every time Phil and I have ever talked about where we want to live California has always been out of the running due to crowded cities and over-priced cost of living (and this is coming from a couple who lives in Boston!? I know our logic makes no sense). But having experienced the pleasures of San Diego we are amending this statement to: "we want to live nowhere else but San Diego!" The weather was wonderful while we were there (mid - high 70's!). In fact, while we were there we dodged the below zero weather in Boston. It was such a relief to slip on flip flops and t-shirts and walk along the beach! And traffic in San Diego is no worse than here in Boston (if not better), and I'm more than positive it's ten times better than L.A.'s traffic. Even if Phil and I never move to San Diego, I think we have decided that we are definitely going back...many many times.

Thanks to Dan and Wendy for having the wedding in San Dieogo and thanks to Rita Clem for making the stay so wonderful!

Our new place

Now that we are back from Oregon and the busy holidays are over I have finally found a few moments to take some pictures and blog about our new space in the basement of Erin and Brian's. We love being down here. This is by far the largest place we have lived in since being married. So here is the grand tour...

Our lovely front porch and door

Our front room

(thanks to Erin and Brian for the extra couch, rug, ottoman, and book shelves below!!!)

Dining area with our favorite bar height table

The desk, which has stayed down here since Jon and Deb lived here. I guess they nor Andrew and Rebekah wanted to keep it and we thank them for that!

This is our kitchen. Andrew and Rebekah painted the wall red and we liked it so much we kept it.

As you can see we don't have a stove top or an oven but we survive. Andrew and Rebekah left us their two burner hot plate and the microwave is also a convection oven (which currently doesn't work, so we borrow on the good graces of Erin and Brian if we need to bake something).

Our very own laundry room! This is thrilling for me to have this much space to fold laundry and it has lots of cupboard space.

The bathroom was the largest project I under took when we moved in. I took down old fixtures, patched holes, painted the walls blue (they used to be red), put up the wainscoting and chair rail, and repainted all of the moldings and cabinetry. Then Phil helped me put in the new fixtures we got with our awesome Black and Decker perk (thanks Dad!).

This is what you see when you walk into our bedroom.

This is the smaller closet that we use for Phil's shoes and our coats.

The bedroom used to be all yellow. Brian was kind enough to paint our bedroom for us. We chose a chocolate brown for the accent wall behind our bed and a cream color for the rest of the walls.

And our very own walk-in closet!

So that's our place. But here are a couple pictures from our travels to the Northwest.

This is a double rainbow we saw on our way back up to Portland. The picture below is the right side of the rainbow! It was a really large beautiful sight.

Phil and I are excited about this new year. We both have new jobs and we're in a new place. We hope it brings many new things for us! Happy New Year to all of you!

I got a job!

So I got a job as a Project Analyst for a large healthcare compant in their finance department! I interviewed for this job back in September. I will start in January after the new year. This job has worked out rather perfectly. Being that the country is in a recession and the job market is awful I thought there would be no way I would get a job offer in the near future. So I consider myself extremely lucky. Anyway, thanks to all our friends and family for your prayers, love, and support.

p.s. keep tuned for pictures and detailed post about our new place!

Getting Ready for the Big Move

This next weekend Phil and I will be moving downstairs to the basement apartment! Andrew and Rebekah found a house to rent (just a couple blocks away). We are really excited to get all of our stuff out of storage and find out what we have been missing for the past 5 months. I of course am thrilled to have a space I can make our own, i.e. paint, decorate, etc. I have some pretty big plans for the bathroom, so I will take pictures when that project is done.

Along with the exciting news of our move, Phil has a new job! He started it last week and I think he is really liking it. (Check this out to get his take on it.) I am really proud of him and very grateful he was able to get this position. It finally makes a little more sense to us now why we moved here. We ultimately moved here so Phil could find a job and get some work experience before graduate school. It took a little longer than we expected, but we are thrilled with the results.

Anyway, stay tuned for pictures of our new place as we settle in and decorate!

More pretty pictures

So Phil and I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, but we haven't shared them with all of you yet. The last three are taken from the top of the tower, which was closed the last time we went.

This picture does not do this tree justice. It was the most beautifully colored tree in the cemetery and it looked so eerily bright amidst all the graves.

If you look closely you can see the temple up on the hill in the distance
(sorry, my camera is a bit "dated" as far as technology goes and I couldn't zoom in much more and the mega pixels are a bit low)

Needless to say, Phil and I are really enjoying the fall here on the East Coast. You definately don't get colors on the trees in Utah like you do here.

Updates of all updates...

Every time I look at Julia and Dave's blog I get upset that there are no new posts to look through (I mean how else am I going to keep in touch with my twin sister who's 2,000 miles away? I know, phone, email...but it's just not the same). Then I realized others might feel the same about our blog, seeing as my last post has been up just as long as Julia's. So, I think it's time I updated our loyal readers of our life here in Boston.

So Phil and I have been her in Belmont for 3 months. We currently reside in the "Yellow Room" in the Barbara Rd. house while our stuff resides in storage. Both of us have actively been pursuing gainful employment. We have written numerous emails, sent in a plethora of applications, had phone interviews and real interviews...but to no avail. We are still looking! It doesn't seem like the best time right now to be looking for jobs with the way the economy is going. But we're pretty sure higher ed, health care, and nonprofit organizations aren't suffering as bad as financial institutions, so we're hopeful.

But with all our free time Phil and I have discovered a love for the local Belmont Library. Sure, it's old and smells funny, but it has lots of great books. Those of you who know Phil know that he is an avid readers, reading 2 or 3 books at a time (I'm a one book kind of girl) and since all of our books are in storage and we don't have the money or the space to purchase new books, the library has been our closest resource for our reading enjoyment. Here are two recommendations that I have:
1. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, by John Wood is a really good read about the struggles of starting an internationally operated nonprofit, plus I really enjoyed his casual style of writing.
2. North and South (this one is more for the ladies, unless you gentlemen get as much enjoyment out of a love story) by Elizabeth Gaskell. I read this book because my sister-in-law Hannah recommended it. And let me tell you ladies, this one is great. I would also recommend viewing the the miniseries BBC produced, I would put it on par with the miniseries A&E did for Pride and Prejudice.


I guess another update that needs to be done is on my diet. As many of you may know, I have been on the Atkins diet for the past 12 weeks. I have never really done any dieting in my life and I felt it would be a waste of time to try because I just wouldn't have the sticktoitiveness (many may think this is not a word, and it most likely isn't, but dictionary.com has it, check it out) to see it through. Surprisingly I have been able to stick with it rather well and I have lost...drum roll please...28 lbs! I know I know, you want to see pictures, but I promise that results will be better when January comes and I have hit my goal...then I will share pictures of my new frame. For now, I still have a lot of work to do. I work out three days a week (on Erin's treadmill in the attic) along with the diet, which I think helps. Although, technically you don't have to work out to lose weight with Atkins, I find I feel better if I do. Well anyway, I don't usually like to talk about my weight...but I wanted to share this accomplishment with all of you.

So that's pretty much the Jen and Phil update. If anyone knows of any good jobs available in the Boston area, let us know! For now, I will leave you with some pictures from a trip we took up to Kittery, ME this past Friday. (the last three pictures were taken at a beach in York, ME just past Kittery)

pretty tree

another pretty tree

pretty jen and phil

pretty beach

pretty beach houses

Twinship

Today is the 24th anniversary of my birth, when I came into this world following one of the most amazing women I know. I was born September 13, 1984 10 minutes after Julia. Growing up, Julia would always tease me by telling me she was older (yeah, I know just 10 minutes, but somehow it worked) but then I would just tease her back and tell her I was taller (half an inch but that only lasted until ninth grade I think). But despite the fact that we were twins and I was taller, I somehow always looked up to Jules. She is one of the strongest women I know, who can take ANY challenge that is thrown at her. I mean, she beat CANCER of all things! She really has been a saving grace in my life. I want her (and everyone out there on the blog-o-sphere) to know how much I love my twin sister and what an amazing woman she is. So, here's a few pictures for your enjoyment.

Funny, now it's the other way around...I wear glasses and she doesn't.

Jules on the beach in Hawaii. Sisters trip '07. Thanks Erin for having a business trip and giving us the excuse to soak up some sun on the beaches of Hawaii!

Here's Jules in the sunset in Hawaii...I told her to smile, she took a bite of her ice cream, figures.

Here we are sporting the fashion choices of one Sue Clark. Even at the age of 21 mom felt we needed somewhat matching things. Fuzzy coats mom? really? (There is another version of this picture where you can see the humongous night shirt that Jules is wearing, sporting a frog I think, which was also a part of the plethora of strange gifts that Christmas) But we quickly forgave our mother and realized she had done all her Christmas shopping at T.J.Maxx on Christmas Eve (considering she couldn't fly gifts over from Rexburg) and was at the mercy of what was in the store!

Here's Jules sporting one of her more creative Halloween costumes...dressing up as our friend Amy, crutches and all.

Jules being Jules!

Twins being Twins
(I'm still not sure what we were looking at here)

Jules, I can't imagine a person that I would rather share my birthday with than you. Happy 24th.

MOZY.com

So I have recently noticed how old my computer is getting (over 3 years, which is OLD for a computer) and hoping that it won't crash and Phil and I won't lose all our files.... so I decided to sign up for a free service that automatically backs up my files. I got 2GB of free storage space, but if I refer others, I get more free storage space and so do you. So, if you have also been looking for something to back up your important files, click on this link:

https://mozy.com/?ref=NXFMSH

Or you can enter NXFMSH as a referral code during registration.

It's really easy to sign up and use. You have to download something onto your computer that locates your files, but it's easy and simple. You can set it to backup as often as you would like. I have it set up to backup every week during the middle of the night, so it won't slow down our computer when Phil or I am using it during the day.

So if you want this service and want to help me and you get some more free space, just click the link above!

New Blog

So I started a blog of my very own. I decided to dedicate space just to my obsession with digital scrap-booking and blog templates. It's called Singer Designs. Yes, I know, rather cheesy, but I couldn't think of anything better. Take a look and let me know what you think.