We're Matt and Sally - and these are our little ones: Francis, George, Samuel and Scout (the dog, not pictured.)
We bought this domain name for our wedding 10 years ago and it evolved into a family blog when our oldest was only 3 months old. There have been lapses of writing here and there along the way, but we're back and hope to do better.
Matt is an attorney by day and woodworker by night. Sally is a momma, photography enthusiast, and Grammy Award winning freelance graphic designer. She designs album packaging for the Nashville music industry - having designed albums for Merle Haggard, Brooks and Dunn, Amy Grant, Blake Shelton, and Kenny Rogers to name a few. ;)
Our goal is just to live life creatively. The blog is simply a family journal. Our hope is to record as much as we can for our kids to enjoy someday. Because unfortunately, we bought the baby books, but never filled them out. Here's to hoping this makes up for that.
by Sally
imron - These are great! I was wondering when the next batch of mattandsally would hook me up. Thanks for sharing the fun weekend and new Francy photos – she is adorable. Questions:
1. Do those gigantic screens with people's faces on them spitting water make sense to you? They just scare me.
2. What's up with the Martha Rules book? Is it any good? I happen to be watching the Martha Apprentice and it isn't bad.
3. Once I click on Flickr to go see some photos, is there a way I can link back or hop back to Gulde land?
Matt - answers:
1. They don't make sense to me. That's the beauty of it. They don't scare me, either. I hope they come up with something new, though. Maybe it could be a constant game of war with random playing cards showing up on each side. Just a thought.
2. Sally will have to answer this one. I haven't read it yet. I do like the Martha Apprentice show, though.
3. I don't think there's a direct link on Flickr back to our page. I'll look into it. The best thing for you to do right now, though, is add http://www.mattandsally.com as a button on your browser.
donr - Ok Matt, I can't wait any longer. Last Saturday's game was either too painful for you to acknowledge, or so profound that you've yet to figure out how you want to memorialize it. At any rate, this non-football post, which nonetheless involves you, will have to be my vehicle.
So I don't think it's any big secret that I've been a lifelong Notre Dame hater. We're talking visceral loathing, mind you, not just mild dislike. And nothing ever happened to cause me to change the way I felt.
And then along came Charlie Weiss. A guy I've admired for years, really, really admired as a coach and an offensive specialist. A guy who, in my view, was always underrated and certainly was overshadowed by all of the defensive prowess on the Pats' coaching staff. And Weiss clearly aspired to do what bewilderingly few other college coaches do, which is to teach his guys more than a handful of absurdly predictable plays. And it's working!
Now, I didn't let my affection for Charlie color my allegiances in the Michigan game. But come the USC game, when Weiss was up against another Pats coach who I have zero use for, when there was a chance for Notre Dame to knock off a truly insufferable USC team, when all the stars seemed lined up…well, I found myself looking forward to the game. I found myself even hoping ND would win. I know, I never in my life thought I'd utter those words, but it's true.
And then the game turned out to be one of the two or three best college football games I've ever seen.
And then, Notre Dame lost at the very last second. I was crushed. I can only imagine how you felt.
So this is me – a lifelong Irish hater – reaching out to you, across the emotional and geographical void, to say "Sorry, guy. What a great game! I was really hoping they'd win." And marvelling that such a thing could be happening…
Matt - Don,
I appreciate you reaching out to me. I haven't posted about the USC game mainly because words are failing me. I'm having a hard time struggling out from under the details of the game: green jerseys, 4th and 9, punt return for TD, missed the fullback in the flat on third down, Bush, fumble out of bounds, pushed in for the winning score. Normally, even in losses, I can step back and see those individual events rationally, but now I can't stop playing "what if." That's the sign of a painful loss.
Once I stop thinking/hoping that maybe I was dreaming when they scored that last touchdown, then I'll be able to look at the bigger picture.
The bigger picture is this: for the first time in more than a decade, there's a guy in charge of ND football who cares about it as much as I do, which is a lot. Charlie Weis seems to get it. He understands what ND aspires to be, and he embraces it.
imron - Matt, then you must be happy that ND has apparently offered a 10 year deal to Charlie!