Little Faerie

I've seen it, but can't find it in pink or purple, only blue. I got the NUK Active cup instead, because it was all pink with a princess and a green dragon. I hadn't thought about switching the spout for a nipple! That's a good idea

Yes! It is that one, only in pink with flowers Love love LOVE it. The fast flow size is perfect, though the medium flow works well without being too difficult if you're not that thirsty. I like the bigger size of the fast flow ones though. Best. Bottle. Ever.

So I don't usually go for baby bottles anymore. In my teens I tried many, but these days I'm a sippy cup girl. However I saw this one in the store and could not resist. It looked so right. Nuk now makes an orthodontic bottle with an air vent in the base of the nipple, and it is wide like those big playtex ones. You can even buy fast flow nipples that have a drinking hole a couple of millimeters wide! I bought a "medium flow" bottle because it was the only pink one and got the 2 pack of replacement nipples for it in "fast flow" which have a bigger nipple as well... It is the most natural bottle I have ever used, it is better for an adult mouth than conventional bottle nipples in my opinion. Maybe they're old news and I just hadn't noticed, but I had to share in case someone else hadn't seen. They are just awesome! Maybe there is room for flexibility, after all, my diapers *do* say baby on them... why not? Has anybody else tried this one? What do you like or dislike about it?

I'm a child, all the way. 6 to 7 years old going on 3. And for the record, Tween is between and including the ages of 9-12. It used to be called pre-teen when I was a kid but I guess that wasn't cool enough. Some people, such as certain fashion designers, say it is as young as 8, but most disagree. Once you are 13, you are a Teen, period. How do I know this? My daughter just began wearing her first bra, and I've had to sort through a ton of "Tween" sites about advice, even though she still has 1 1/2 yrs to go before she is an actual Tween. She's in the earliest stages of development a year and a half sooner than I was so I was caught a bit off guard lol.

You forgot green It's a standard unisex baby color, and it's my favorite color! Little Faerie SAD!

Yep... I play it on my fiance's Evo

I was first diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia before I found out that they were both being caused by an underlying disorder: hypothyroidism, accompanied by hormone deficiencies. Now tell me that one's in my head, that it's psychosomatic. Blood tests don't lie. Both of these very real and debilitating syndromes are often caused by something more serious, but doctors don't see a connection so they don't bother to find out what it is. I had THREE doctors tell me I was "depressed", "Eating too much", had "Just PMS", or "it's all in your head". Then I finally had a doctor who ran all sorts of blood tests and discovered that my thyroid wasn't functioning well, and that in turn caused my adrenal insufficiency, and caused me to have the hormone levels of a postmenopausal woman, at age 26! My 7 year old daughter has more estrogen than me. Those things were the root cause of my horrid nerve pains (increased pain sensitivity my ass... try having excruciating shooting pains when you aren't even moving. I can handle being flogged, spanked, whipped, etc., I think I know about pain. Fibro pain is a whole other ballgame) and the crushing fatigue as well. Both disorders are symptoms of underlying disease, but this does not make them less valid. Doctors don't or won't realize they are warning flags for something worse. It made me very angry to be accused by one doctor of making it up, and that I "must" take antipsychotics because this was the problem. I walked out of that office! I am physically ill and that was flat disrespectful. Be careful what you read out there, finding truth is a tricky thing. I now have to take thyroid medicine for the rest of my life. As it begins to work, the Fibro and CFS should go away, since as previously stated they are symptoms of the underlying disease. I suggest that you should consider that people with these things aren't just complaining or lazy or imagining it, that there is an underlying cause that simply hasn't been discovered. I did not believe in Fibromyalgia for years until I myself experienced it. I thought people with it were just whiners. How humbling. Karma is a bitch huh?

I will not click I will not click... You are an enabler! You should be ashamed of yourself feeding our addiction to Angrybirds like this! Naughty boy! *clicks*

I finally ended up going to a Naturopathic (NOT homeopathic... totally different!) doctor after one too many "regular" docs blew me off as a crazy female. They sometimes get a bad rap because there are quacks out there who do more harm than good, but she's a great doctor. She is educated in both conventional and alternative medicine and went to medical school like all doctors have to, which is awesome because I'm all for trying natural things too. She was the only one willing to run the necessary tests and believe that I'm not a crazy lazy face stuffer and that I *like* to exercise, I just have nothing left to do it anymore. My body is just flat paid out. Even after my adrenals tried to shut down last summer and I got carted off in an ambulance for passing out cold in front of my front gate, they *still* wouldn't believe me that my symptoms weren't all in my head and wouldn't check anything. If you're near Upland or Costa Mesa, CA, she has offices in both if you're interested. She doesn't take insurance but she's very good with women's health issues, it's one of her specialties. Dr. Cynthia Preston ND. I can't believe I have had to live with this for years all because nobody listened to the "crazy PMS lady". Such a simple fix... 5 tubes of blood drawn to find out and one little pill a day (long term) to get better. Why was that so hard for these other doctors to do? Maybe it was they didn't want to admit I might have a better idea of what my body tells me than they did. Who knows. Good luck with figuring your stuff out Sarah!

So I've been fighting with inherited hormonal problems for a long time. I spent years looking for a doctor who would listen, they all put me on birth control pills and told me it's all in my head. The pills made me sick, bleed constantly, and fight even harder with my weight to keep it down. I stopped taking them several years ago because they never helped and I hated a 24/7 period for months on end. "It's just PMS" or "You're just depressed and eat too much" was all they'd tell me. If you look to my post in "No more surger" you'll see how I eat. Well a few weeks ago I got a new doctor that my insurance won't cover. Why am I paying out of pocket you ask? For real answers. And what's better, I got them. The first thing she did was spend 1 1/2 hours asking me questions about everything under the sun. Then, she ordered hormone and thyroid tests, on top of a bunch of other blood tests. It turns out I have hypothyroidism, and bad enough to need medicine. It might even be the root cause of my previously diagnosed Fibromyalgia. I also have several hormone deficiencies, especially progesterone. Why couldn't any other doctor figure these simple things out or refuse to even test for them when I asked? People don't gain weight rapidly by eating right. Women don't get facial hair and horrible periods from "just PMS". I can't be depressed if I'm happier than ever. That's just stupid! So anyway, on top of some other meds for my ladyparts (ugh, UTI again. No diapers for a week sucks!) and probiotics, she put me on this prescription stuff called Armour, a natural thyroid hormone medication. I react bad to most synthetic hormones so those aren't much of an option. My question is this: Do any of you guys have experience with thyroid medications and if so have you had problems?

Maybe, maybe not. Some brands of juniors jeans seem to be marketed to gals with no figure at all. The ones with the toothpick thin white mannequins in the window are bad about having flat assed jeans. I shopped at Deb a lot for my denims because they catered to more shapes than just twig, and went from size 0 to 15 so no matter what I weighed I could always find clothes. Not that I've ever been a 0 lol. Delia's also had wide selections of denims too last I checked. I won't buy most designer jeans but I'll pay $30 for a pair if it means they'll last years.

I have to agree with waynecook52 on one thing, young children can and often do have vivid and accurate memories. I can vividly recall quite a few things from age 4 on, and have checked strange memories I had with other people to confirm that they were as I remembered. I even remember one thing as far back as what I can guess would be around age 1 1/2, scooching around in a walker that was small for me teasing my little gray and black Pekingese dog Smoky with a hard tasteless chocolate chip cookie. He bit me on the face, and I still have the scars. The latest that memory could have been was close to age 2, and it is in fact my first memory. Nobody told me about it until I was older, that's when I found out he was a Pekingese. He died when I was 4 so I seriously doubt I fabricated the memory of knowing my own dog. When I was about 4 I vividly recall getting stuck in the creek bed behind our house while mom was hanging clothes, and freaking out because the mud sucked my pink barbie boots with the stars right off my feet. I remember when I was 3 1/2 my brother (21 years older than me) and his bitchy wife were babysitting me, and I got sent to the corner facing packing boxes for something stupid that I still don't have any idea what I actually did, and Lisa went to get lunch from McDonalds. I was wearing a purple and black long sleeve shirt that day, my favorite shirt besides the yellow one. They got me a chicken nugget happy meal but I was so mad I would only eat the fries, and I had to stand in the corner eating them out of the little red fry box off the top of a box. By the time they were given to me they were cold and I got in more trouble because I didn't want to eat cold fries. I have a lot of childhood memories that are like little silent movies in time. Most have no audio, only visual. I remember things in pictures so it is like a photo-flip book in my head. Many memories from childhood are indeed hazy, but some of them are very, very clear. The only things I ever get mixed up are colors, I will switch things like purple and yellow, and red and green. I do that even now with recent things, for some reason I'll remember a color's exact opposite instead of the actual color. I have asked people involved about things I remember, and what they say matches about 95% of the time. I had to ask my mother how old I was for some of them, because I had little concept of how old I was until about age 4. Speaking of being 4... oh geez the horse/unicorn birthday cake debacle... I was upset because mom made and presented me with a purple glittery 3d unicorn cake at Grandma's house, and I wanted a brown horse one. You get the point... little kids can sometimes remember things with great clarity. I think it may depend on how you remember things though. I remember everything like a picture, which helps a great deal for tests because I can "see" and read blocks of text in my mind. Kind of cool, but really awful if I see something really gross or bad, because the image can get stuck for a while. It does help me find where I put things though!

I have the opposite problem, and hip huggers are my solution too! I have a narrow waist and voluptuous hips. If I get a waist that fits I can't get them over my butt... If I get them to fit my butt/hips there is a huge gap at the waist and they slide down. Belts cause uncomfortable puckering of the waist, we're talking a 12 inch difference in my hip/waist ratio here. So, I just wear low-rise jeans with a little stretch to them so that they cling a bit and stay up. The only regular rise jeans that fit are Apple Bottoms or Baby Phat brand and those tend to have a lot of bling adorning them and are expensive as hell. I want pants without bling thanks... I'm a plain jeans girl. Thankfully my top goes with my bottom, though I have to take in my shirt waists so they don't look tent-like. I love having nice curves but I hate how much of a pain it is to find a bra and a shirt that fits! You can't find a 38F at Walmart or Target, even in the full figure section. And no, I'm not plus sized so that isn't the issue lol. Though, I don't dare wear hip huggers with diapers... I buy size large to fit the hips (the waist tapes almost touch in the middle) but it means they come up way past my bellybutton. Women's shirts aren't as forgiving as men's in this regard. Congrats on finding a solution! Believe it or not, many men have secretly bought women's jeans on purpose or accident because of better fit.

Weird... I always thought Ativan was the weak benzo... nothing happens if I take it, even 2-3 mg at once, but if I take Xanax 1.5 mg knocks me on my butt sawing logs in an hour. A few years back in the hospital they gave me a big dose of Ativan in an IV when I was admitted because they thought at first my sudden neurologic tremor and stutter symptoms and dizziness were a panic attack. That time it did something! OMG it made it 10 times worse! I began hallucinating on top of the extreme vertigo and the room began spinning even more. There was no up or down. I nearly threw up on a nurse. Turns out even though I wasn't underweight according to the BMI charts, my body said and showed otherwise and the other psych meds I was on were overtaxing my system on top of an infection. They apologized to me bigtime for not believing me that it wasn't a panic attack! Another benzo Klonopin works on me, a bit too well. It makes me drag for 12 hours, which is why I ended up trying Ativan in the first place. Be careful with all of them, later on I developed serious muscle tics during long term Xanax use that took months to ease up after discontinuing it. I was still well within safe dose range for my body weight (which went back up to normal a bit after my hospitalization. I'd been dizzy so long I hadn't realized how it had killed my appetite)but taking it for two years caused some moderately serious problems. Thankfully they were mostly reversible. Hope you get your issue resolved quickly and that it's no big thing. Incidentally, I get similar symptoms to panic attack when my blood sugar drops suddenly. Sometimes if I'm not feeling well already then I can't tell the difference. I keep a glucose meter with me so I know whether to eat or just chill out. Docs have a lot harder time figuring out low sugar than they do high sugars... I had to keep daily glucose level and food intake logs for several months for them to confirm it and figure out that it's the reactive type. Refined carbs do it to me bad. For me it's genetic... my dad and sister are the same way. Enough of my rambling.... I should really not post when I haven't had enough sleep lol. Get better soon! -Little Faerie

The majority of AB/DL men I know personally are not sissies, nor do they want to be girls. There are a handful who cross-dress but most of them prefer to be baby boys. It all depends on perception really. Plain ol' boys don't really stand out, whereas it catches our attention when we see a man desiring to be feminine. I think it is mostly that Sissies and TG folks tend to be more vocal and outspoken, as they pretty much have to be to dispel falsehoods and defend themselves. Simply put, if you look at a handful of gems, the first one you'll notice are the shiniest, the most colorful right? If you pick through the gems more closely you might see that the more common or ordinary ones add up to be more, but at first you passed right over them because the sparkly ones were what stood out. And let's face it... sissy boys certainly stand out like a shiny gem A side note... it is possible that some men are uncomfortable in a community who welcomes Sissies and TG (some people are just closed-minded like that) and therefore choose to refrain from joining, thereby skewing the population to appear as though being feminine is more common. Personally, I think diversity is better and welcome all kinds. Even trolls serve some purpose. (unification of the rest of us, if nothing else.) My two cents. Take 'em as you see fit.

Thanks Bettypooh. I'm of the mind that garbage in = garbage out. Eat crap, feel like crap! I use honey, raw cane sugar, molasses, and real maple syrup (NOT Aunt Jemima! That's just corn syrup with artificial flavor!) for sweeteners. I've heard agave syrup is good too but haven't tried it yet. I have enough syrupy bottles for the ants to go after lol! A side note... I had high cholesterol back when I used cheap margarine. That stuff is like plastic in your system. I switched over to using real butter and olive oil in moderate amounts along with having whole grains, and it went back to normal ranges again. So much for butter being "bad". Let's recap... I include these things in my diet: Real sugar Butter Red Meat Beer Salt Ice Cream Brownies and by simply following the whole foods rule, not eating processed food, and using moderation, I have: Normal Cholesterol Normal Blood Sugar Normal-low Blood Pressure Healthy Body Weight strong hair and nails and of equal importance... I enjoy my food! I have "bad genetics"... hypoglycemia, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, bad teeth, high cholesterol, and obesity run RAMPANT in my family, along with mental illnesses. What's the difference, and why am I not like them? I used to be. My lifestyle and food are why. The choices I make. That's it. I (now) know I have to eat right to counteract my body's predisposition to these things. It won't eliminate the likelihood of me having a heart attack, but I might be 80 before it happens instead of 50. That's 30 extra years. I can go for that

Wow. Oops that was the short version!

I could go on at length about this. There are SO many things I want to say. In fact, I'm currently writing a whole foods cookbook because of these attitudes right here... that eating junk is ok, so long as you use fake sugar. It isn't. I know personally the awful effect of aspartame. In me, it causes horrid nerve pain and frequent headaches. Sucralose (Splenda) like all fake sugars, tricks your brain into producing insulin when it doesn't need to. This can cause a whole host of health issues, eventual diabetes being one of them. Did you know diabetics AND hypoglycemics are not supposed to consume saccharin or aspartame because it makes their illnesses worse? And I'm not a gambler but I'll lay 1000000:1 odds on that "research" about stevia being bad is funded by the artificial sweetener and processed sugar companies, and maybe pharmaceuticals too. If you're not buying their products, how can they make money? My point here is that you need to wean yourself off the junk and learn how to eat real foods. Have just one or two cups of coffee, and if you like it sweet, have a dollop of honey or RAW sugar. If you are diabetic, try stevia you've grown yourself (in your windowsill if you have to). Moderation makes a world of difference. Having whole grains, natural meats (if you're not vegetarian), fresh fruits and not sugary juices, and fresh vegetables makes a world of difference to your body. Did you know that chocolate is even good for you, but not in the form of a hershey bar! Bake it in a whole wheat brownie, with reduced amounts of sugar, make your sugar raw or use honey. Whole wheat does NOT mean dry and tasteless like those so called wheat breads at the store. Most of them are just white bread with sawdust and caramel color. If you look in the right places you can get veggies and fruits for cheap, even organic ones, so long as you buy them in season. The pesticide covered stuff is only cheaper because it is subsidized by the government, and can harm you in the long run. Is losing 20 years of your life worth being able to buy extra twinkies at the store? I've been poor, I've lived on $130 of food stamps for two people a month. It sucks, but you know what? You can grow a pepper plant in an old milk jug in a sunny window. You can take that old cat litter bucket (what it comes in, not the litter pan! ew!) and clean it, stick a tomato plant in it. By shopping sales, what is in season, and going to farmers markets in summer, you can eat organic and not starve. Buy a little extra of it here and there and freeze it for when it's not available. Check out the bulk bins in your store's health food section. Without all the expensive packages the organic grains, flours, and rices are so much cheaper, and they are so good for you! Spices are the same, get them from the bulk bins and you'll save a ton vs that tasteless pricey McCormick in the glass jars. There are so many more things you can do, but eating healthy is a start. Oh, and bagged salad? Forget it! Just buy the loose lettuces and tear it up yourself. You'll save 2 or 3 dollars right there. All in all, you don't NEED the extra sugars. Have a little bit here and there as a treat... don't trick your body with the fake stuff. You're only tricking yourself, and it's you who pays in the long run. If you want a sweet, have a baked yam, or carrots, or make a fruit smoothie with 1/2 cup natural vanilla yogurt. If you really gotta be bad, have your sweet cakes whole wheat style and homemade. Above all, moderation truly is the key. You can't expect to eat lots of junk and stay healthy. I sound like a total nut right? Well, I'd rather be a nut who lives to 100 than die from what I'm eating. And before you think I exist on air, sunshine, and rabbit food, let me give you an example of what I eat in a day. Breakfast: 1 Brown Cow Maple Cream Top Yogurt 1 Banana Almond Milk (I hate skim milk, and this is only 60 calories a cup and yummy!) Snack: Apple dipped in sour cream (seriously, it's good!) Lunch: Tuna Salad Sandwich on 100% whole grain bread made with olive oil mayo and fresh garlic/onion A BIG Baby Green Salad with fresh herbs (I grow my own on the patio) and olive oil/balsalmic vinegar w/ salt pepper Iced tea, unsweet (I like it that way but I think it's fine to sweeten) Snack: Peach Dinner: Maple Glazed Salmon or a 6 oz Grilled Sirloin Steak with Mushrooms, depending what's on sale Sweet Spiced Quinoa with Golden Raisins, Pine Nuts, and Chickpeas Steamed Broccoli with a pat of butter and seasonings Blue Moon Seasonal Ale (or two) Whole Wheat Brownies with 1 scoop real vanilla ice cream Snack: Wedge of Brie Cheese, Grapes, Teriyaki Rice Crackers And of course filtered water throughout the day, sometimes with a squip of lemon. This kind of eating has kept me healthy and at an ideal weight for my stature with only gentle exercise. Sure I'm fighting a genetic problem right now, but no amount of eating right could have prevented that. That's another story. And no, I don't mean a toothpick either, mama's got curves lol! Years ago I was a Ho-Ho eating white bread sugar junkie who drank Coca Cola and Mountain Dew several times a day, and I was unhealthy, I had eczema, and I was FAT. Made the switch to whole grains and whole foods and poof! I felt 100% better and lost weight. My skin rashes went away. Coincidence? No way. My two cents. Take em as you see fit.

I had to look... how laughable!

Same here, butt on toilet and head over the bin. What sucks is when more than one of you in the house is sick like that and you've only got the one toilet. Back to the topic, diapers do make my recent illness easier to cope with... I'm dealing with a lot of bodily pain with it especially at night, and wearing diapers to bed alleviates the need to get out of bed or under-medicate so I don't sleep through the urge, as without fail I have to pee at least twice a night. Yay for having a hamster bladder lol! I can just pee and go back to sleep warm and cozy, or not have to wake in the first place. I am trying to be careful and not reverse all the work I've done teaching myself to wake at night when I gotta go... after 26 years I have finally gotten my sleep wetting episodes down to one every 1-3 months, except lately the medicine is causing more frequent instances of me sleeping through it. I opt for diapers, it's easier than getting up 2-3 times and hurting too much to get back to sleep, or peeing the bed. My fiance/daddy understands when it happens but since we sleep tangled up together I'm sure he doesn't much care for getting peed on lol. Besides, it gets my butt felt up more if I'm wearing, and I get more nookie too

I need one of those, I'm pretty frazzled but I'm holding out for June when the child goes to her father's for summer vacation. I simply don't have the time for it right now...

Exactly.

I have not intentionally misrepresented anything, and am sorry if it seems I did. I am inclined to believe the error would be on my part as to whether Mrs. Murray's figure was pre or post tax, she is not a dishonest person in the slightest. I have never found her to be anything but truthful. Perhaps I remember our discussion about it the other day wrong. The cost of living there in MO is why I want to move back... I live in the Los Angeles area now and boy do I miss the rent back home! I will never think of $500 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment as "high" again! I pay 2.2 times that here. I just wish the pay was better, if you are lucky enough to find a job and keep it, they pay you the least that they can these days. In urban areas you can find some better work but the quality of life is worse and not worth it to me. I grow my own organic vegetables and that's something hard to do in those areas... I am thankful to live in the suburbs out here where I have at least a little space to grow food. When I go back I plan to have chickens again for organic eggs and meat, so definitely can not live inside the city. Without apparently having all the information I must conclude that it seems I do not actually know enough about childcare systems to accurately compare them to the education system in terms of salary and wages, and so I retract any previous statement about such that proves to be false or inaccurate. I do however still firmly believe that many childcare workers and most teachers are underpaid for the amount of work put in, and that both systems are in sore need of repair. I took a brief look at the sites you mentioned and see numbers that are at odds with my personal experiences, so it is probably time for me to withdraw from that subject without having further information. You have enlightened me on a few things I hadn't taken into consideration, and perhaps I should check outside my own experience before I post. I am however pretty busy so I probably won't look into the topic in depth for a while. I concede that you are more knowledgeable on the topic than I for now. This week's activities include homeschooling (as always), making a nine-square twisted quilt (hint, each block is 9 squares... lots of pieces!) for a summer bedspread since the old one is about dead and it's getting warm here, prepping some veggies for canning and freezer storage, writing in my Urban Homesteading blog (some big community stuff going on) and planting peppers and zucchini plants... on top of the day to day chores and spring cleaning. Somewhere in there I have to find time to level my WoW character because I haven't played all week. Hence why I haven't been around DD much... you'd think staying at home was an easy job lol!

To answer your last question first, she worked for a public school. She retired 2 years ago, so the current wage does not apply to what she made, but she worked for mainly rural schools. In rural Missouri where she taught, few jobs in those areas pay worth crap. I was not using large daycares as my example, I was referring to the more numerous small daycares in which the licensed care provider is most often the same person as the owner, or the spouse of. Private daycares which tend to be smaller with less staff often charge more and pay more than public daycares which accept government subsidy. Large daycares have their own inherent problems with finances and employee pay which certainly need to be evaluated. I don't know if you have ever used daycare services, but as a mother of a young child I have used several and done plenty of "daycare shopping", this experience being in part what these comments are based on. In the cities in which I lived, there were few larger daycares and lots of small care-provider owned facilities, and the rates which I quoted were the range of rates I encountered from various facilities I interviewed. I suppose if these large daycares employ 20 people that their workers could outnumber the more numerous small facilities, but I honestly didn't stay long enough to find out in the ones I visited... I was not willing to subject my child to being treated like a number. I preferred personalized care. And I seldom believe the statistics presented on the internet about any given topic, especially wages and employment. They are too often skewed or misrepresented. I will agree that those people who work for large daycare facilities are underpaid, and if it is true that since they employ more people than small ones per facility that they do in fact make up a larger number of daycare workers, then I can see how your statement can be true. I think maybe that it varies by city or region. In any case, teachers are still not paid enough for what they do. My comments exclude higher education professors of course, I refer only to grades pre-K to 12. They shape the future generation, they instill the basic fundamentals of knowledge for life, isn't that worth something?

Leilin- for the large scale daycares that is true. But in most cities for every large daycare with multiple staff members, there are at least 10 more privately run licensed daycares with one or two caregivers, and they are paid per-child. Typical daycare rates are $100 to $150 per child per week in my home state of Missouri. Let's say these smaller daycares have 8 unrelated children per week on average. The actual average number of children is more than that but I do not know the exact statistic so I'm lowballing the number of children for this stat to be on the safe side. That is $1000 per week, or $4000 per month. Daycare insurance can cost upwards of $1000. This leaves $3000 per month, not including expenses. Many daycares are run from property owned by the daycare owner. That puts a (very) small daycare worker's income at $36,000 per year before taxes. Even most small daycares have more than 8 children per worker. My former daycare provider had 12, and she was the smallest one in the city I lived. I have a dear friend who is a retired teacher (she was one of mine ) In her entire teaching career, her highest pre-tax yearly income was $30,000 which she finally earned just before she retired. She paid for 75% of her classroom supplies and expenses out of her own pocket and as a specialized art teacher, that was a lot. She was a high quality teacher as well. Somehow, this seems pretty damned unfair to me.