Benjamin Murphy

The Move:

Sara and I woke up at 2:30am in Chicago after just kicking out the last visitor at 10pm. It took us awhile to get going because we hadn?t cleaned up the kitchen or the bathroom the day before because we were too busy trying to load up the truck. Thanks to Jim mostly we were able to get it loaded and on our way by 3:45am Chicago time.

The roads leading out of the city were sparse with traffic. It took some getting used to the big heavy load I was hauling, but by the time I hit the Skyway things were going well. Sara and I didn?t stop until the last rest stop in Indiana which was pretty impressive. The truck was down to half a tank so I topped her off at a mere $40, yikes! It rained almost the entire way through Ohio and we only stopped a few more times. The walkie-talkies we borrowed off of Jim and Marge were so helpful. It was fun chit chatting back and forth on them.

Thankfully the gate was open at the good old Zelienople service station off of the PA turnpike. So we busted through it and made our way home saving us a good half hour not needing to drive clear to Cranberry, especially since we were arriving around 1pm eastern time.

Both our moms were there to greet us as we pulled into the Steinacker/Schaumburg farm. The men weren?t going to be able to arrive until later so we just unpacked the car. Sara and I lay down and took a nap for a couple hours until George, Glenn, and Travis and Amanda got there to help unload the big truck. It may have taken Jim and me almost 10 hours to pack the truck, but it only took the rest of us 1 and a half hours to fully unload it. Most of the stuff was put close to where we needed it, but we sure did make the house a mess.

After we were done unloading we took the big couch over to my house to be put in my mom?s waiting room of her office and then we all headed towards Monte Cello?s. Pizza, hot wings, and Yuengling, what more could I have asked for as a first meal back home? Sara and I treated everyone to dinner for helping us settle in and for welcoming us back home.

It was a good day, I?m glad to be home.

Several family members have known about the desire for both Sara and I to move home to PA in order to be with the bulk of our family. We want to do this so that we ourselves may possibly buy a home soon and start a family of our own, Lord willing.

About two weeks ago Sara received a final confirmation from her employer stating that her requested transfer from Chicago to the Pittsburgh office was accepted. This was huge news that several people have thankfully been praying for! Our current rental lease is up on April 30th and we will be packing up the 15′ Budget Rental Truck, which has already been reserved, and heading home sometime during Wednesday and Thursday of that week. Sara starts her job at her new office downtown the following Monday May 2nd. I can’t even begin to tell everyone the level of our excitement that we have knowing that we will be moving closer to our families. However, we can’t begin to grasp how greatly we will miss the Murphy family who has looked over us the past three years, as we’ve watched them grow… thank you Jim, Marge, Aidan, and Burfy. We love you so very very much!

We ask for your prayers in this time of transition. For some reason I myself feel as nervous as the time when we got married, had no jobs, and moved out to Chicago on our own. I myself will be unemployed and desperately seeking a full time employment within the web design or other graphic arts fields. Several individuals have been looking out for me already and have sent news clippings and jobs online, for which I am very thankful. Please, keep them coming. If nothing happens within the next few months I will be creating a business site solely for freelance web design. Doing freelance full time is very difficult, so I only would like to do this if necessary or part time. I ask that if anyone knows anyone that may need a new or redesigned website, that you please send them my way, care of benjamindmurphy@yahoo.com

Please pray for us in this stressful time of transition. Sara is currently neck deep in a super busy tax season and working unbelievable hours. I had to beg her to take Easter day off! I also ask that you pray for her as well, that the Lord gives her strength and calm during these busy few months ahead of her.

Thank you everyone, for your support, love, and especially your prayers. Please, keep them coming!

Love,
Ben and Sara

Sara and I just got back from a lovely relaxing weekend in San Diego California. She’s finished up her second busy tax season of the year on Friday Oct 15th and I put her on a plane and told her we were going to chill for the weekend. If was great. We did a good bit of site seeing as every good traveler should. I suggest if anyone has time to travel, and you all should – to get a new perspective on where you are from and/or currently living, is to take a town/city history tour and an architecture tour if available. Ya, it’s great to spend the week at Disney if you happen to be going to Orlando, but do you happen to know anything about the city and why it is this way at present? As Americans, who have a lot of wealth compared to all other nations on Earth, we do not travel enough to see other cultures, even in our own country! (just my opinion)

Anyways, we had a great time. We went to the most famous zoo in the country and we did a trolley tour of the city. We spent some time on the beautiful beaches of Coronado, which has been named the second most beautiful beach from the travel channel. Second to some beach in Hawaii, but that doesn’t count 😉

We went to a lot of very nice restaurants and ate tons of food. Toured the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier and saw Shark Tale the movie. We also did a lot of lazy relaxing activities. Sara caught up on a lot of sleep she had lost over the past month or so. It was a great time. The city is beautiful. Oh ya, and to clarify some stories you may have heard…. San Diego had not had a single bit of precipitation in 180 days solid, that’s over 6 months without any rain whatsoever. The weekend we arrived, rain was scheduled. Well very little rain manufactured itself but there was some sort of “rain”. Most here would call it a passing sprinkle or even a slight mist. It was such a non-rain as I’ve ever witnessed, but I guess they were in such a drought state they’d be happy for anything. The meteorologists on the local tv channels there were predicting the rain like they were predicting the blizzard of ’93. “Stay off the roads if you don’t have to go anywhere, there’s 180 days of oil and grease build-up that is sure to make a slippery and potentialy dangerous situation.” That made me chuckle, give me a break Mr. Paranoid. I can’t wait for the next weekend jaunt!

Here are the pictures we took while in San Diego: Link