It Ain't Over Till It's Over

What's up Giants fans!! I'm sorry I have not posted the last couple of weeks.  It has been a year of injuries for the orange and black. I think Lou Seal is one of the few Giants who has NOT been on the D L! The giants are on a roll right now, Pablo Sandoval hit for the cycle against the Rockies Thursday night!. What was funny, was when I checked the score of the game and saw Panda at the plate and saw he was three for three with a home run, double and single, I thought "wouldn't be cool if he hit a triple right now" and as soon as I completed my thought," Pablo did it!". That was awesome, I along with other Giants fans tweeted about it! Currently the Giants are six games behind the Diamondbacks for first place in the west and five games behind the Braves for the wild card. The defending world champs still have a chance to make the postseason. The team is playing well and with a little help, they could be in the playoffs!  Let's hope so, Giants faithful!! As Journey sang, "Don't Stop Believing".

Thanks for reading!

This week's Cause is Personal - Help Save the YuckMouths

This Special Needs Family needs your help today--Can you Help?

"A family with seven kids is a whole other dynamic" - Lisa Gallegos

Here's the thing, when you have a family with special needs children in it, life is challenging; when you have seven kids and some of them have special needs - life becomes so much more complex. Just ask Lisa Gallegos, mom blogger at Seven YuckMouths & Autism and the recipient of this week's special needs "Cause of the Week."

Why?

Well, like most things in life it's a long story. One I'm not going to bore you with, but will address. Because the Gallegos' could be any of us, and could be any special needs family caught between the cruddy reality of losing a job, a home, and the life you've made for your family --and the needs of that family.

This very unique special needs family needs help

Desperate financial situation, including the loss of the YuckMouth Daddy ... er, Roy's job, has meant that this family of amazing kids is being forced to move, to find a new home for the dog adored by their young Racer, who has autism and formed a close bond with the dog.

While things are slowly starting to move into place, this family is still lacking the funds needed to move, and for basic little things, like, oh, toilet paper. As Lisa says in a chat message "Heck, if it (any help) buys toilet paper for a month I will be a happy camper."

If there is one thing I have learned by trying to offer Cause of the Week causes that you and I can relate to, it's that when one of our own needs help, this community of extraordinary special families ... unique in diagnoses and circumstances but alike in a common bond forged in desperate prayers and too many doctor's visits ... this community explodes into action to try and help one of their own.

Why should you help the YuckMouths?

These are the kids you'll be helping, in the words of their mom, Lisa:

• "...From the top there is Nate....he actually has gone to live with his Biological dad. He couldn't take it anymore, his sort of rebellious stage.
• Faith is 14 and just entered HS --trying to find her way.....emotional train wreck, making my hair gray by the minute.
• Lexie is 9 and my momma hen, takes care of Racer when she gets it and pushes his buttons when she forgets. She's kind of a bully but loves her sibs.
• Logan is my ticking time bomb, destroyer of classrooms and being evaluated for ADHD. He's my sweetheart with a hard shell.
• Then there is Racer, the one thing I don't think you know about him is that he loves his sisters, the two younger ones....those are his buddies in crime .
• Then we have Justice, she's 3 almost 4 and crazy, she's the princess of the bunch. But she has speech issues and possible autism, but definately SPD (sensory processing disorder).
• Then my Monkey of the family is Kiera. She's 1 and a feisty lil girl. She loves trying to kiss Racer cause she knows he hates it. Loves to dance and play and shout MOM over and over again."

As you can see, this is one of *those* kinds of families ... the ones you can relate to, the ones you can adore, the ones who could be you. And they are hurting right now.

One other bit of love from special needs and more blogger Caryn Haluska from Living with Logan: 

"Lisa is a marvel.. she never lets 'them' see her sweat... until she gets home to the facebook and the twitter. Which is kind of entertaining, actually. We get to see what she WANTED to say!! The woman is fierce, and proves to her family and the world that she is willing to do anything.. ANYTHING... for her yuckmouths. She is an inspiration, indeed the very definition of dedicated momma committed to doing her everything for her family."

This week, I have a challenge for you and a way to help Lisa and her family no matter what your own situation is like right now. You should know by now, if you've read up on Kat's Cafe for any length of time, that my Cause of the Week announcements are usually more of a way to raise awareness about real causes about real people, real special needs families and causes. When we care about something, we don't let lack of money stop us from helping.

Now, of course I'm including a Chip In widget for The YuckMouths ----and whether you can give $1 or $100 you should know that this family is worthy of your saved dimes and nickels. I wouldn't list them if they weren't. But even if you can't give a dime, or if you want to do something more ... I've compiled an action list of several additional things you can do without spending a dime (okay, I lied ... a couple options might require spending money ... so sue me! Um ... not really--I'm counting my dimes and nickels too!)

Your checklist to help Save the YuckMouths:

1. Go visit Seven YuckMouths & Autism and read, comment, explore Lisa's site!
2. While you're there, Follow her blog! (We like to see the pretty numbers rise!)
3. Check out Lisa's side venture, Jars by Lisa, on her site, or on Facebook (Or you could buy one! Neat trivia fact: The puzzle pieces used on the regular jar designs are donated by families who have a loved one with autism!)
4. Check out the amazing new children's book put out by Roy, called The Adventures of One Sock
   You can buy it direct from the publisher (& the YuckMouths will receive a greater portion of the profits)
5. Visit Roy's site for his book, The Adventures of One Sock, and show him some support.
6. Tweet (This post or one linked above), RT, or Follow: @lovelylicious (Lisa) @YuckMouthDaddy (Roy)
7. Share to Facebook - to your wall or a Page or a Group ... spread the word!
8. Share to Google+ by giving the post a +1 (and typing in a comment to share it!)
9. Comment!!!! I like to hear about your reaction to the Cause of the Week - what were you able to do to help?

If you want to help out go to http://katscafe.org/2011/09/12/causes-kats-cafe-helping-one-of-us/#.Tm4eydTkHpU and click on the the "Chip In" box at the bottom of the page.

Embracing the stage version of Mary Poppins

Guest post written by Emily Long
As soon as I heard that they were coming out with a Broadway version of Mary Poppins, I knew that I would have to go and see it. I always loved the movie and would demand that I watch it any time that I had a babysitter. I don't think that they seemed to mind anyway because that always kept me occupied and well-beahved. Well, except when I should have been doing homework, then it was a little difficult to get to me to do what I was supposed to do.
Well, I'm in the midst of planning a trip to New York to go and see the play. While I was online lookign up some information on how to get discount tickets, I ran across some information about Miracle Ear. After I looked through it a little bit I decided to sign up for a hearing test for next week.
I knwo that Mary Poppins is going to be so great! Although I want to make the trip even more worthwhile and go and see a few other plays while I'm there