Last day of 2008

I shook and tower and worshed my hair and got to dry it in the sun today. It was cool, but sunny. I'm going to make a meatloaf now. All we did for homeschooling was thank you notes, but this is the first year we did it 1) without tears, 2) promptly, and 3) sent one to everybody who gave him a gift. I think it's a combination of him being older now, and me not demanding it be handwritten and lengthy. I let him pick thank you e-cards from Dayspring. I told him to type up a few sentences mentioning the exact gift received and how he felt about it. His words were rather thoughtful actually and he did it with very little direction from me. I was pleased. And I also bookmarked three pages of quotations and had him choose a few that he liked and instructed him to add a quote to each note just for the ducks of it. His favorite quote from quotegarden.com turned out to be:

I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude. ~Benjamin Disraeli

Boys!

Memorizing mainly

Mainly my whole point of existence today amounts to trying to memorize the next four lines in my recitation. I got the first one down, then the second one, but after I added the third and fourth I could only do the first one and flubbed up all the rest. So I made up a body movement as a muscle memory mnemonic. It helps a lot.

Our son got his first lesson in weapon safety today and I went and took notes so I can write up a test for him. I like doing that. His teacher is a friend of ours who teaches gun safety and shooting (I'm sure there's a more technical title for it) to the law enforcement officers for New Mexico State Parks. He's awesome. I could not find a better teacher and he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart.

I read that John Wayne's gravestone says “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight, very clean. When it arrives it is perfect. It puts itself in our hands. It hopes we learned something from yesterday.” I don't think he originally said it. I can only find that it's author unknown. I like it though.

Today was a real nice day.

Pinch myself

Today we saw two coyotes sauntering down the road, big as life, like they owned it. They looked beautiful and healthy. We saw them go by to the right, then turn around and go by to the left, then run off straightaway when a pick-up truck drove by. It's a lot of sightings in one day.

Took our son to emergency tonight. We feared he had asthma, but it's allergies. He's breathing well now and it's good to know it's not asthma. I have a doctor appointment set on Friday with a pediatric allergy specialist in the city.

I, must, pinch, myself. I felt the urge to get my camera today. I'm taking it with me tomorrow for my walk. I saw a bird sitting peacefully atop a tree and the sun setting sun light shone golden on his feathers. He was watching me. Would have been a nice shot.

Walk or eat?

I had a half a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce for lunch, but I was hungry at 4:00pm. I can't eat then. It'll ruin my dinner. I wanted to eat some cookies or Nestle's Krackle bars. I used raw willpower and instead of munching I went for a walk - 25 minutes. My husband came with me and we even jogged a bit. I felt so much better afterward and my legs felt overall good. It was cold out too. It's hard to get motivated to go outside when it's so cold

Windy, windy

Today you have the choice of reading or listening. I give you fair warning. You can read it in 60 seconds, but I yammered on for seven minutes - don't know how that happened. Haha! I said 'um' too much and I enthusiastically banged on my table a couple times, didn't even realize it, so I apologize that one of them is too loud (you hear it at 22 seconds). Onwards and upwards.

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It's duperly windy today! The men have gone to do laundry and go to Wal-mart. Hey, I've noticed on Wal-Mart's site they spell their name on the home page both with and without a hyphen. So what's up with that? Are they schizoid? Do they want a hyphen in there or not? It's easier to type without a hyphen, yet I notice the AP spells it with the hyphen.

I have the trailie alllll to myself. Ooooh. I'm home alone! I haven't been exercising for a week so that's a must. Must exercise after I write this. I'd rather do a couple hours of exercise per day than have take an Ibuprofen in the evening because I'm all achy-breaky.

At the Christmas dinner I spoke at length with a fella who has long grey hair that he wears in a pony tail. It looks really good. I've seen him before. I've noticed him on account of the hair, but have never spoken to him. I'm glad I stayed. I wanted to go home because I was so uncomfortable, but if I wait long enough usually the uncomfortableness will go away or at least lessen and it did. Besides, to grow spiritually a lot of times you have to go outside of your comfort zone. He's married like 35 years. He's 55 and got married when he was only 17 and wife, 15. I didn't ask any whys and wherefores about that! He likes photography like I do. He has three kids and three grandkids and I met one of the grands. He was a nice little boy. The wife was home preparing an extensive Christmas meal for 18 guests that included prime rib. I haven't met her. He said he really wants to go on his bike, he's a Harley man, and travel far and wide, but his wife doesn't. He asked me about Alaska and our travels and I sputtered a bit about our travels, but I am rarely wanting to talk about our travels because, well, isn't it quite dull listening to other people talk about where they've been and what they've done? Sometimes I think so. He didn't leave though, so I guess I wasn't boring enough to kill him. We got up sometimes to serve in the food line. Sadly, I have to report, the turnout for the free Christmas meal was dismal.

Our son and his friend were victims of random Christmas kindness this year. As they held the sign out front to entice people to come in and eat, a couple in a pick-up truck stopped and gave them a Christmas card. They opened it and found twenty dollars inside! They were so happy and excited and they split it 50/50. My son thought it belonged to the church and he was going to give it, but the other mom told the kids to keep it. I thought that was awful nice. I'll encourage him to tithe it, but I know he'll do it even without me telling him. Did you know, the Bible talks more on the topic of giving than about heaven and hell. I've haven't double checked it out, but that is what my pastor says. Money is important to people and you really tell a lot about someone depending on how they feel about and how they manage their money. And. You know the tithe is ten percent. Ifns you should tithe ten dollars, but you only tithe one you might want to say, "Well, I gave my one dollar and that's something." However, truth be told, yeah, you gave $1.00, but, now you've stolen $9.00 from God. Now that's something to think about.

11 dozen meeces

I got downgraded from 160 to 123 Christmas mice. Two of my jars had cherries with no stems! Drats. It took much longer than I thought to finish, I always seem to underestimate, but finish I did. We went out and looked at Christmas lights and just got back.

Merry Christmas. :)

Tomorrow the 24th

I will be making 160 chocolate covered cherry mice tomorrow for the Christmas dinner my church is doing on the 25th to serve the needy. Can I get one more prepositional phrase in that sentence? No, I can not. This photo shows the 27 I made today (that equals one jar of maraschino cherries) and I have six jars to do tomorrow! I've never made so many at once! I'll be making two big pans of candied yams too. The yams I'll bake on Christmas morning, but the mice I will prepare tomorrow and store overnight. They'll keep fine as long as they don't get warm and melt. Maybe I'll put them in the truck overnight because it's so cold out. They won't get too warm outside that's for sure, and I can't do yams and mice and volunteer all in one day. Our son is volunteering to work as a server or whatever they need him to do. I emphasized to him that it's good to ask for a specific job, but he needs to go into it with a mind and heart that he's available to do what needs to be done whatever it may be.

This year, I feel I am in the place I should be more than any other Christmas before.

Potluck

I have to hurry up and make chocolate mice. We have to be at the park potluck at noon. Making them doesn't take long but getting their ears prepared takes awhile because I have to match up almond slices.

We have big winds today! Gusts up to 65mph the weather report says and it's pushing the trailer around. Glad we're not in a smaller trailie because it can drive you mad in a little one like we had the first year here.

A first try Jackie Bun

I played with my hair today. I have been wanting some style so badly lately. The other night I stayed up really late watching this girl's hair videos on YouTube. If I wait till after 1:00am I can download to my heart's content without going over our bandwidth allowance. This gossgirl2 does Apostolic hairstyles. I didn't know they had their own hairstyles, but they are the ones who don't cut their hair according to 1Corinthians 11:15, so they have very long hair. I did what she calls a Jackie Bun and I'm thrilled with the turnout! Actually, when we've been traveling I do think I've seen Apostolic hairstyles, but I didn't know it was Apostolic hairstyles. Some of the styles are a little too staid looking, but others of them I like a lot! I have bangs and Apostolic girls don't. And I have a long face and I don't need any height on top of my head, so I don't do that part. I think they call them "poofs." I find the term "poofs" rather cute and it's so cool to have YouTube where you get to actually be in someone's house watching them do their hair. It's so one and one.

This style is easy! You put all your hair in a pony. When you pull your hair through the second time, pull only a few inches out then fan it and pin it. It will look like a big bloop on the top of your head. Okay, so you have the rest of the pony still handing down. Next take a piece of hair, not too much, and you make what I think is called a barrel roll. You wrap it around two or three fingers then pin it to your head. Do this over and over, making barrel rolls, until you have no more hair hanging down. Voila!

I'm so pleased with it. It's well distributed and feels lightweight on my head. I have no hairs tickling my face. I'm so happy. And I'm amazed that so much hair can be styled into such a small hairdo. It's an optical illusion! Also, it reminds me of my cousin Laurie's hair the way she wore it to her high school prom in 1969. She wore a beautiful blue dress and long gloves to her elbows.

Not bad for a first try and I think I can do it nicer with practice. I took the big step of buying hairspray and I sprayed my hair. I'm going to try it next time without spray to see if it'll work. I don't think mine will stay in place without spray, but I will experiment. I've tried aloe and I get no hold from aloe. Lastly, on the down side, normally I avoid pony tail holders like grim death, but I have to give a little to get a Jackie Bun. That's the way it goes.

Video link: Jackie Bun

Sat nite

Our son has a Blackberry and writes me and sends me pics from it. He's at Dad's now and sent me a pic. Dad looks worn. I ask myself whether I ought to make a visit now.

My sweet daughter-in-law got bangs. And she doesn't like them!

Husband and I walked today. It was nice. On March 29th there's going to be a Bataan Death March memorial walk, 15.2 miles, and we're toying with the idea of signing up. My husband has an uncle who died in the Bataan Death March. My grandfather avoided the march, barely, but died on the Oryoku Maru.

I didn't do my hair today! Darn it. I just didn't have the hair-fixing-bug today. Patches the Scary Dog licked my hair though. I love Patches. I might need to wash it before church, but I'll probably do as usual and just rush around in the last 15 minutes and throw my hair up in a Ficcare. When I was young we had to look nice for church. Now I am old and I wear a jeans and an oversized flannel to church. I think I have the best pastor in all the world here. He always wears a dress shirt, a tie, and dress jacket on Sundays. Someday I might start wearing skirts all the time. Or maybe skirts all the time to church. I tape the sermon on my whoop-dee-doo sound recorder then download it to my iPod and I listen to it at night all week as I go to sleep. Even though I hang on his every word, when I listen to it through the week I hear things I missed on Sunday. Funny, huh? Not funny haha, but just interesting.

My boy gave me a lecture tonight. Ever been lectured by an 11-year-old? Sheesh. I accidentally called Charlie (he's a dog who lives with Patches) a noodlehead. I know, how mean. I shouldn't have said it. My child stopped what he was doing and looked at me as if I'd just spit out a four lettered word. But Charlie is a dumb dog. He's dumb as a rock. My esteemed child instructed me on loving both dogs equally even if one is dumber than the other. He said Charlie wants my love and we've been asked by the family to care for both dogs, and the cats, while they're on vacation, so we must treat the dogs equally. And he told me I have to say good-bye to Charlie and pet him on the ears just the same as I do Patches. He's a good son. It can be irritating to have my teaching come back at me when I don't want to hear it though!

Such a ditz

I need a new shampoo. I'm out of Giovanni. Today my son and I went to Walmart. I need him with me because he knows where everything is and also my eyes get so dry there for some reason. I spent maybe an hour in one aisle, the shampoo aisle. I do hate shopping for shampoos. They're all so alike. Finally I picked one. It was purple. That's the best I can remember about it. It was purple and I liked the smell. Maybe it was Suave Orchid. It had sulfates in it and I couldn't find a shampoo that didn't. So next I decided I needed hairspray because I want to try a hairstyle tomorrow. I spent an hour last night looking at this Apostolic girl's hairstyle videos. Some of her styles were a bit on the strange side, but a couple were kind of funky cool and I thought I'd play around and try to follow her instructions. She makes a lot of what she called, I think, barrel rolls. I bought Rave hairspray because I thought it smelled good and the Apostolic girl used hairspray so I need some. I haven't touched hairspray in years. I thought it smelled good in the store but who knows, on my hair it may smell altogether different. So next I bought a travel size of super hair gel. What the hey. Maybe it'll give me sleek sides when I wear a bun. The wind has been so strong and I look like like a crazy science professor when I come in from the wind sometimes.

All the time I spent pacing the shampoo aisle and reading tiny ingredients, and. . . .

And I somehow left the bottle on the shelf. I didn't put it in my basket. I checked my receipt and I didn't buy any shampoo. Serenity NOW! I ended up using the Herbal Essence shampoo I bought last week that left me unimpressed.

I also bought a travel size of spray perfume. One spritz on my wrist and I was coughing for ten minutes. It wasn't my most successful shopping trip.

Friday

Later today we're going to Walmart to buy candy to make candy trains. Hopefully.

Christmas Craft: Candy Trains

A day

I forgot to say that our son got his picture in the newspaper on Friday. That was kind of a thrill.

Today was a pretty normal day.

My husband did order some new tennis shoes for me. I suppose that's something. I made a big mistake and threw my old ones away because they were ugly! I replaced them with some cute P.F. Flyers which proceeded to hurt my feet - not one of my wisest moves especially since I made a big deal about walking over to the trash can to throw away the ugly ones. I do that a lot. It's my M.O. (modus operandi). But he made me suffer with my fashionable painful shoes for three months. I didn't have the nerve to ask for a new pair. I had the old ones for like five long years! Isn't there a time limit or something.

My new ones have purple lines on them. I think I'll be able to walk really fast in them. Hahahaha!

Backwards is the new frontwards

It's Liliana's super duper fashion tips tonight!

It is troublesome to me when I go shopping and all the cute tops I like are cut down to the navel. Well, practically to the navel! Might as well be the navel! When my 11-year-old son tells me at the dinner table, "Mamma, that top is too low," then Houston, we have a problem.

So I hit on a great idea. I wear my tops backwards! It works. Nobody thinks I'm weird. I will even post photos to give you proof that it works. These two tops are both awful low cut. But when I wear them backwards they're high cut and they're kind of cute showing some back. I think so anyways.

Remember. When everyone's wearing their tops backwards, you heard it here first. I used to live in L.A. and I can still rock the fashion (sometimes). Just make sure it's a knit top, no darts, because you don't want to look like you have, uh, heavenly endowments or two puffy places sticking out of your back instead of your front.

44"

I'm doing my January 1st post today. I hit 44" and this here is probably my whole month's growth. I don't think it'll grow much beyond 44" between now and January 1st, 2009. Today I washed it with my husband's supercilious cheapy-deep shampoo that contains all the ingredients I normally avoid like the plague, but I really wanted my hair to smell nice so that's why I used it. Then I blow dried it. Yes, indeedy, in a couple cycles of five to ten minutes each. And I applied a smidgen of Kara's leave-in to the length. And wonder of wonders, then it was quite amenable to being photographed. Here is me fretting in my shaky, small voice saying, "Ooooh, does my hair looks okay."

And here's one from the front. When I stand real straight with my arms straight down I'm pretty sure I'm barely fingertip length.

My knees sure look far away.

Finally, a scarf I like

I've been wanting a scarf for my hair for the longest time. I found one! It's long and thin and purple. I put my hair in a pony and wove the scarf in a braid as one of three strands, put in about three bobby pins, and voila! It's stays and feels secure and has a nice shape. I haven't done a new hairstyle in a billion years. It's tricky getting the large bobby pins in without damaging the scarf. Takes a few tries sometimes, but I've had success with it.

News of the day

I heard on the news today the economy has gotten so bad that vegetarians are eating their Chia Pets!

Sun. night

All those luminarias we set out, but it was too windy to light them. Even so, there was an excellent turnout of people. Our son got his picture in the newspaper. It was in the low 50s so the night wasn't very cold. The fireworks show was as good or better than July 4th!

Luminaria

Tomorrow is the big 2008 Luminaria. I will be there at 10:00am to help with setting out some of the 4,000 luminarias along the road and paths. I love doing Luminaria Night. At about 4:30pm I go out again to help with lighting them. There's a potential problem. Weather might be coming! Oh no! There's a cold wind predicted at 30mph and if winds are 30mph there will probably be occasional gusts even higher. It's so quiet right now that it's hard to believe there will be any wind tomorrow. If winds are too high we cannot light the luminarias because the bags will burn up or the candles will be blown out by the winds.

I handmade, well, computer handmade, two thank you cards and the volunteer coordinator and other park people signed them today. Students from the Christian private school, and also one homeschooling family that has five kids, came to the park and helped us fill bags on Wednesday. I made cards for both of them to be sure they know they're appreciated. We finished the work in record time because of the kids! They were such a big help and they worked so hard. Many hands make for light work. The first year we worked here it took us five hours to fill the luminarias with sand. This year it took 90 minutes!

Grahams

I was thinking. . . . graham crackers are a feminine food. I can't think of any men who eat graham crackers.

I did know a man who ate them once. It was my best friend's dad when I was a teen. I thought he was a little effeminate. A little. I mean, he was mostly a manly man, but I did think he was a little effeminate too, in a way, if that's possible. When I found out he ate grahams I thought it was very odd.

Audible exhalation

An audible exhalation can contain many emotions. For example, the sigh can be a sound expressing resignation or resentment, it can be a whine, it can be gleeful or joy filled. I need a "sigh" that contains all four.

Firstly, I am over my bout of hair hate. On Sunday I had an, um, hair incident. I fixed my hair in bee butt buns, four of them, so that when I'd take the buns down I'd have glorious waves throughout my hair especially for church. I had done two buns earlier in the week and happily discovered such a lovely, wavy effect they had on my tresses so I decided to do it a second time only improve on my method. Did I hear an "uh oh" out there. Yeah well. My improvement means I made four buns instead of two, I coiled them as tightly as humanly possible, and I made the buns on Friday afternoon and left them in until Sunday morning rather than just overnight.

Guess what. I couldn't get my hair unraveled. It was brutal. I almost needed to dial 911. I tried to uncoil the hair on the ends and move upwards but it would make a big rat. I tried to uncoil from the top and move downwards but it turned into another rat. I had rats on the top and the bottom with a coil in the middle. The top of my hair by my face was a giant fuzzball on one side. I was really upset! My heart was racing. I thought of the girl who tried flour and water as a hair treatment and how her dad spent hours with her with her uber long hair in the bath tub trying to peel and wash it out. Flour and water are like glue when it dries, ya know. She didn't know.

I tried to be patient. I told myself all I needed to do was stay calm and work it through, but the more I worked it the worse it got. I wet my hair. It didn't help. Yikes, I worried to myself. I could NOT get the coils undone. I wound it too tiiiight! I looked like Medusa. I couldn't go to church lookin' like Medusa. I wet it again and this time slathered conditioner all over hoping it would help, dipped my head in the tub, and magically, it swooshed apart with the conditioner. Never have I been so relieved. By then it was a half an hour after church started. I didn't make it to church at all. My son told our friends I missed church because of my hairdo which I imagine caused a few expressions of puzzlement. My husband took him to church while I struggled with my hair. Our son hates missing church.

So that's my story on there. I tore some of my hair in the one front section and I could hear it, like a plant screaming, for days. They say plants scream when they're killed.

But I've been having a time with the blahs of late. It's not a big case of the blahs, but just a little wheedling case. I love to do Advent and I'm doing a fair job there, but not with much else. I haven't wanted to sew or quilt or photograph or knit or bead or do anything. So what's my problem? What my major malfunction as they say. Without a tad bit of introspection these things can have a snowball effect, so the only way around it is straight through.

I'm not in a ballet or modern dance class and I wish I was. This town is so small that the woman who got the divorce was pushed out of her business - money troubles - and she's not teaching at all now. I wish I was in a general educational class like Helen - a university level course with quality teaching with human persons in attendance sitting in real desks having real discussions. And another person just today told me I'm so funny I should publish my writing. I told her, as we all know, I'm not really funny. Let's see, what else am I dissatisfied with? My prayer life. I am especially drawn to intercessory prayer, but I'm getting so many for people in such need that I feel sad. I feel heartbroken. I think I must be weak. I keep praying because I'm driven to, but shouldn't I be stronger. Why do I feel worn when I'm praying in the name of the Lord. That's all the self-disappointments I can think of for now.

On the up side I'm doing well on my big memorization project and it's given me a small dash of confidence. I've almost got two pages memorized which will be 50% done. I like belting it out. I belted it out today at the Senior Center because no one was there except me. I got on the stage and the acoustics in the building are great, like an empty library, and my voice reverberated. I was very impressed with myself. Hahaha! It's good to yell sometimes, especially good for quiet people.

With my new found memorization confidence I decided to watch a choreography on YouTube and learn it. To do that, first I had to figure out how to download YouTube videos then convert them to .wmv or iPod format. It took me a couple days, but I finally figgered it out. I found a couple new songs I like and I downloaded two dances and think I'll blend steps from the two. On one dance she's giving step-by-step instructions, but on the second video the guy and girl are just dancing and it's harder to break down. I don't have a wide hip-hop vocabulary so the second vid is harder to decipher too.

My best news is I finally received my boombox, the one I ordered on November 1 and had to return due to speaker rattle. It's an IM7 by Altec Lansing. I don't know why, but the price on it has gone up fully $100.00 since I purchased it. I paid $146.00 and it's $250.00 now. Incredible. I wonder if the price will fall as quickly as it went up. I don't understand why it's more expensive instead of less expensive. As I opened it and put it all together (which took a good ten minutes) my hands were perspiring. I was so afraid I'd get another bum unit and have to send it back. Well, it's not a bum unit. It's a bumping good portable audio system. It's has two four inch side firing sub-woofers and that's what makes it so bumping. I love bass and I also love saying "two four inch side firing sub-woofers." I feel very masculine when I say that. Rawr!

I just have to remember that I am doing what God intended for me to do in this season of my life. Homeschooling is my center and in only seven years when the young 'un is 18 I'll be starting a new chapter whether I like it or not. I should know by now that I shouldn't rush a chapter yet here I am pining for something I haven't got when everything is mighty fine as it is. It's the human condition I suppose.

Oh, one last thing. When my hair was a wreck and I was in a tizzy on Sunday about what to do, my husband offered, offered, to take a picture of my hair. Is there an emoticon for me?

I missed church

BECAUSE OF MY HAIR!

Is it a day?

I'm so groggy. I'm going to have to act cheerful and then the cheerfulness will catch me and I will accidentally really be cheerful. A friend dropped off some kind of power drink for me. She said it will be good for me. She called it "slime." It doesn't look very appetizing.

Yesterday our son especially liked our Bible study. I did two in one because we needed them now. One topic was MySpace and the other was tattoos.

Tragedy

Our friend's mother's boyfriend died suddenly last night. A blood clot. We went over and she had a house full of family. I was surprised we were included with this intimate group. Everyone ate, and hugged, and laughed, all punctuated by tears and the knowing; knowing that nothing softens waking in the morning alone. Everything is changed in their family.

Tuckered out

Oh my, I took a shower and afterward I was plum tuckered out. Somebody must be praying for me. I think, I say it very quietly, I think I am not going to get the coughs! Happy, happy, joy, joy! It's been a mean virus. I didn't know there was such a mean virus on the loose. It's just a head cold, but it'll put you right down.

I put my vanilla soy milk in the micro for 30 seconds so it'd be warmed up. Yesterday and the day before when I drank it cold it gave me a chill and it took me forever to get warmed back up.

And I went for a walk today. Told my husband I have to get out for a bit. It's sunny and cool and by the time we got home I was hot and perspiring. While we were out walking my husband said my hair is really getting long. That's twice he's said that in a week.

I was supposed to lead dance class today but had to cancel, so there's no class. I couldn't get through an hour and a half of movement and my voice is low so I can't be using it too much. Shoot, there's no wiggle in these hips today, no way. I'm going to be all out of shape now and have to work back up to my routine.

Tomorrow I'll get back on the horse and it'll be a regular homeschool day. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

We didn't even do Advent last night because I was in bed sleeping at dinnertime. Everyone had to fend for themselves and make their own meal.

Well

My dad is doing altogether well and the surgery went swimmingly. Hooray!

My husband is sicker than I am. I guess we're getting better but our hair is messed up. His is growing out from a buzz so it's sticking up like fuzzy baby's hair and it's smooshed down in different directions.

Our son finished the book The Christmas Sweater on his own and is doing a book report on it. He said the ending is "astounding." Hmmm. I can't wait for us to finish it. We're on chapter six.

I'm going to bed. My computer screen is too bright for my eyes. I made our son write a half a page about Andrew Carnegie's life because I had not the voice nor the gumption to be a teacher today. He was reasonably amenable because he knew I didn't feel well, but at the end he got a bit of 'tude and I said, "If you wanna make things difficult, I can make things difficult for you," and his attitude dissipated instantly. Am I that scary?

I got an interesting invitation from our homeschooling curriculum company. They've inquired as to whether I'm interested in participating in an online discussion with homeschoolers nationwide during three days in mid-December. They said if I will agree to participate for 30 minutes each day they'll compensate me with $100.00. If I'll agree. If I'll agree? I'll agree multiple times if they want! Gimme the sign-up sheet!