Category Archives: marriage

The year of cotton

anniversary, Chicago, family, Florida, friends, marriage, observations, weddings May 23, 2017 Leave a comment

Can you still count yourselves as newlyweds if you sit down to dinner the week of your second wedding anniversary and agree that neither of you have anything important on the schedule this week?

Oops.

The truth is year two was just about as full as year one, minus a few international soccer trips.

Let’s take a look back:

After learning of a great job opportunity back in the Midwest, we soaked in as many sunsets as we could during our last summer on the Gulf Coast.

 

Another week in the books

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2 of 2.

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We finally got around to checking a few items off our Sarasota bucket list:

Because #mangroves #sarasotabucketlist

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We celebrated a new set of newlyweds back on our old stomping grounds.

We visited NYC. Separately but it still counts.

We said goodbye to great friends in Florida.

We survived Hurricane Hermine and multiple broken down Penske trucks in our attempt to leave the State of Florida. You can read more about that adventure here.

We moved into another new house and we (ok mostly I) obsessed over our first fall season back in the Midwest:

Dear fall, You're my favorite. Sincerely, Sarah

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We loved being so close to friends and family for the holidays again:

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Ringing in the New Year with some of my favorites! We miss you @ltrapp33 @aknaumo4! #zalewskiwinterolympics

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We attended our first Blues game and tried our best not to let on that we were Blackhawks fans.

St. Louis Blues Hockey, Blues,

We formalized our lunch dates and moved them outside the training room.

We finally got back on the slopes for a fun trip to Vail for some spring skiing.

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And we kicked off summer concert season by reminding everyone that even thirty-somethings can dress down up and have a good time every once in a while.

Eric Church, St. Louis

 

To my sleeveless pearl-snap buttoned husband on our second wedding anniversary,

In the past year, we’ve gone from celebrating in separate countries and working weekends to Saturday date nights and Sunday Costco runs. We’ve traded flat sandy beaches for a hilly Midwest river town. But no matter the circumstances or the terrain, sharing this journey of life with you gets better every day.

That being said, I believe the second anniversary is cotton so I bought us some new sheets.

Sincerely,

Your lucky wife.

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Matters of the heart

beach, Florida, Italy, marriage, photography, travel, videos, weddings May 22, 2016 1 Comment

They say time flies when you’re having fun.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder.

And they also say you should probably create your wedding video prior to the eve of your first anniversary.

Well I say two out of three ain’t bad.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since our wedding day. On the one hand it feels like just yesterday we were finalizing details and using all the big-ticket grandparent prayers we could for what turned out to be a beautifully sunny and warm spring day. On the other hand it seems like so much has happened over the past 365 days:

  • We visited 8 countries (ok so Matt visited 8. I only got to tag along for 3 of them)
  • italy, bologna, rome, venice, florence, honeymoon, air canada, duomo, colloseum We hosted our first Florida Thanksgiving

  • Happy Florida Thanksgiving from the Murphalewskis! 🦃🌴

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  • We moved into a new home (still a few vacancies for visitors during hurricane season)

Dinner and a view. 🌅

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  • We enjoyed some romantic meals and date nights

Romantic training room lunch today with @mtzalewski.

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Cheers to date night. How in the world did I get so lucky? 😆 #zalewskidate

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  • And we had a lot of visitors

Two out of three are already on their second icee in as many innings. #gobirds

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So since I’m sure my husband is already celebrating our anniversary across the world right now in Goa, India (barring another record heat-induced power outage), I thought I’d share my better late than never look back on the day that I was blessed with the opportunity to walk through life holding this guy’s hand.
zalewski_video

Sarah + Matt

(photos courtesy of the oh-so-talented Wright Photographs)

The little things 

marriage, weightlifting, workouts February 20, 2016 Leave a comment

Do you know how I know my husband loves me? Well hopefully more reasons than I’m going to list today, but I’m a sucker for the little things so let’s focus on that today.

Disclaimer: The following interpretation is based on more than 6 years of close observation of a significant other who is the type A+ to my type A-. 

It’s not often that I get a chance to meet Matt at the gym on a workday. He prefers to go earlier in the afternoon and my work schedule limits me to short evening runs around the neighborhood and weekend mornings for maneuvering meat heads at the gym. Occasionally, our schedules overlap and I have a chance to workout at the same time. And by that I simply mean we enter the facility together and leave together with occasional winks and head nods in between. But on the rare occasion I have a chance to invade his gym time, you can almost guarantee I have not prepared a bag to make the transition. That’s where a quick text list of essentials and a thoughtful husband comes in. But not just any husband. One that will make absolutely sure you have everything you could possibly need, whether you are walking into spin class or the Tour de France.

Exhibit A:


Simple enough right? Not for the well-prepared man. Because this man I married will take no chance that I will not have enough supplies in that bag to make it through a light workout, or climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

  • Here were yesterday’s findings:  
  • 3 pairs of underwear to choose from (because unfortunately I’ve explained in detail several times how workout underwear is different than work underwear which is different than working around the house underwear, amiright girls?)
  • Two sports bras (if you don’t know me intimately I should clarify that I clearly only need one for support)
  • Socks (great addition for the girl that typically forgets those)
  • Spandex shorts, running shorts and wunder under crops
  • Nikes
  • Blue Lulu top
  • Two pairs of headphones
  • 4 hair ties
  • Deodorant (thanks babe)
  • Snacks (nobody wants to make bad decisions in Target following a good workout)

Feeling far more prepared than If I had packed my own gym bag especially in the perspiration area, I walk out of the locker room with a smile on my face and spot Matt doing some crazy exercise across the gym wearing the male version of my exact outfit. Mind you, the outfit he just chose less than an hour earlier.

I give him a head nod. He shakes his head.

Later, I bring up the twinning scenario (one we are all too familiar with) and learn he picked out his outfit even after packing my bag. I giggle and mentally check a point in my head for times my type A+ guy pulled a type A- Sarah move.

#igotdressedfirst

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(NOTE: photos is from a previous matching gym trip)