Just as Samson had walked out the door to leave for work, I went into labour. I screamed for Samson to get back in the house - not only was he missing the birth of his children but he had also left a pot of soup boiling on the stove!
Fortunately, he did get back inside in time to save the soup and welcome our sons into the world - Calvin and Troy.
Samson still had to go to work right after but he headed off happier than I'd ever seen him.
When he came home, he was not so happy. He'd been demoted and had picked up some nasty bug from work to boot. I served him some of the soup he made before work - nothing's better than soup when you're sick.
Galen and Georgette were both a huge help taking care of the boys. They love being grandparents. Galen is already saying he wants 20 grandchildren!
Caring for twins is still hard though, even with help. It's often midnight before I'm even able to sit down to eat anything. Samson is still sick too and he can barely sleep at all.
Galen has decided his body isn't what it once was and has decided to retire and leave rock to the younger guys. So he's home to help us out all the time now, though I really hope that wasn't his real reason behind retiring.
Georgette doesn't think she'll ever retire. She's said she'd go nuts being at home all the time, which is part of the reason Samson is an only child (only child of Galen and Georgette, but we won't go into all that again). But she's great with Calvin and Troy when she is home.
Samson is still sick. I'm getting really worried about him.
What he really needs is some sleep but he just can't tear himself away from the boys.
He never listened though and the illness just weakened his body too much and it gave out on him. I really imagined us growing old together, maybe having one more child. I never imagined I would be a widow at 29.
The worst time is at night, or early in the morning, when I realise how empty our bed is now.
Both boys saw Samson's death but Calvin in particular was inconsolable.
I know Galen is having trouble dealing too. There was so much unfinished business between Samson and his dad and those loose ends will remain untied now. On top of that, it must be heartbreaking to outlive your child.
I took some bereavement leave from work and used it to spend time with Calvin and Troy. They need their mummy right now.
I let Galen and Georgette talk me into holding a birthday party for the boys' 5th. I really wasn't in the mood for a party but I know how much Galen wanted to be with all his family again, so I relented.
And in the end, it made me happy to see my sons happy. They really enjoyed having a big party.
For now, the house is quiet again but the boys will start school soon so I think that will change, once they start bringing friends home on the school bus.Random pics:
At their great-nephews' birthday party, Joseph and Vivienne decided woohoo in the hot tub was an appropriate activity.
I can't say for sure because I didn't catch them but it looks like Tate and Zelda may have had the same idea! Zelda probably should have stayed in there a little longer - she's looking a little chilly there!Notes:
- This was not an ROS or planned in any way, so I was as surprised as anyone! This family is pretty depressed right now. Kendal wakes up and gets out of bed just to cry and sigh and Georgette and Galen both break out into frequent fits of sobbing.
- And yes, you may have noticed the soup didn't work! I got the message that he felt his illness melting away but then right after that, the pop-up that he had a cold appeared. This happened again when I had him eat another bowl. This also happened to Magdalena in college but I forget how I fixed that. I think the second bowl might have worked in her case. But anyway, I didn't quarantine Samson and he managed not to infect anybody else. That made me think he'd actually gotten better so when I heard Grimmy, I was a tad confused until I finally noticed Samson's icon was missing from my side panel! So RIP, Samson! He was only 32, poor bloke!
- Kendal really didn't want a party! She lost 2500 aspiration points. I've never seen that fear on a shy adult before, only on shy toddlers and children. I don't blame her for not being in the partying mood but it did cheer Galen up. He had the want for a family reunion.
- On a lighter note, the cheeks! Will I ever get rid of them? Both Calvin and Troy inherited the damn things. I thought perhaps maybe they weren't as dominant as I thought, because Tatiana and Owen didn't get them. Collette's got a strong chin/jaw area herself so that would explain Owen but I don't think Arianna's is particularly prominent. I am stuck with these cheeks!
Awww, so sad. It always makes me sad to have toddlers or babies who lose a parent. They'll never get to know them. And he was so young too. Just can't control what happens!
ReplyDeletePoor Kendall. I hate and love when unexpected things like this happen in game though. At first I thought it was an ROS, but when you said it just happened, then I was actually kinda sad!
ReplyDeleteAnd I do have to laugh about Galen wanting 20 grandchildren. Did he really roll a want for that, because that would be SO fitting. I could see him giving Sampson advice on how to go about doing that...
Oh no! Not Samson!!! How shocking, and sad! How awful for Kendal and those boys :(
ReplyDeleteDo you have the lot debugger from MATY? You can check to see the progression of their illness, or if it's gone away or not.
And about those cheeks, I would just surgery them down and make it genetic. No shame in it! I do it to all my premades before I let them breed into my gene pool, lol! :)
I'm shocked about Samson! I grew a little wary reading, it seemed it could be leading in that direction, but still devastating for the family and the poor twins.
ReplyDeleteAwwwww that really is sad about Samson. I always hate losing my sims when they get older (I actually have an update coming that has the death of an elder), but it's terrible to lose them so young.....and with small kids there too!
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone.
ReplyDeleteRiverdale, Samson was a family Sim and all he wanted was a family, so I think it's extra sad he'll never know his sons.
Lunar, Galen really does have the want for 20 grandchildren! I didn't bother locking it, because there's no way it's going to happen, barring some horrible sextuplets glitch or something, but it has not rolled away. He really, [i]really[/i] wants 20 grandchildren!
Laura, I do have the Lot Debugger. I know that Show Plague Info doesn't show up unless they're still sick but I'm absolutely lost as to what any of the numbers are supposed to mean. I notice them changing throughout the illness but can never tell if they're getting better or worse.
And I just might do that surgery. I did it on Ione but I almost wish I hadn't. I think her face would have evened out as a child, if not a teen. But I know these cheeks are there for good, from my experience with Galen and Samson, so I think they need to go!
Lynds, I figured people would see where this was heading at least halfway through. I considered changing it but I don't think you really need to try to make the death of a young father more sad, so I just left it. ;)
Taylor, I rarely am all that sad about elder Sims dying, unless they're a particular favourite. I've had 3 "before their time" deaths in Sullivan though and they've all been very sad. It seems like the Sims react more to them too, but that may just be me projecting.
Here, have a look at this. I can't remember the abbreviations without opening the game, but there are two you need to watch - the current state, which for flu, shouldn't reach 120. The other is your recovery points, which should be positive (?) to mean that your Sim is healing. The recovery points are added or subtracted every 6 hours.
ReplyDeleteAs for surgery, I always take a peek at how they'll look as adults before I do it. To be honest, I had to do it on Angelo Shaw when he aged to teen recently - he has a lot of old and extreme Maxis genetics in his family and grew up seriously deformed, like freakish looking! I just can't take a character seriously like that, you know?
So I did the surgery in his adult lifestage, and then aged him back down to teen. I'm really happy with the results though, I managed to keep the "character" of the genetic face he would have had (his mom's cheekbones, and his dad's nose, and he even kept that weird scar on his forehead), but with a humanish look to it.
Oh, thank you so much! I will take a look at that and see if I can make any sense of the Plague Info next time I have a sick Sim.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'm like too. I have to be able to look at a Sim and believe that a face like that would exist on a real human and there have been times when I haven't been able to do that. I think all I'll need to do with the Clarke boys is smoodge their cheeks or jaws in a bit. They both have Samson's mouth already, so I think they'll still look a lot like their dad anyway, especially seeing Samson's jaw was disguised by dreadlocks for all of his adult life anyway!
Ack! I've had that loop happen before. It was very frustrating, better, ill, better, ill and then the entire family was catching it! I thought it was a bug or something, so I eventually cleared it with insim. I had no idea you could check plague info!
ReplyDeletePoor Samson. And definitely poor Kendal... a single mum!
Aww that was sad :(. When you mentioned for the second time about the sickness, I had a feeling it was coming. I also thought it might have been an ROS but it was an accident :(. I forgot he even had those cheeks because they were so well disguised by the dreads.
ReplyDeleteBut yay! I made it to July of last year! I can't wait to read what happens to Kendal and the boys.
Danielle, you caught me in the middle of replying to other comments! Good timing!
ReplyDeleteYou're catching up! Yay, I'm excited for you to join us in the present! LOL. I was away for about half of July last year, so July was a very light month, update wise.
You're so close to Round 19 when is when I completely changed the aging system to the Lakeside Heights model. I think it improved the blog for the better. It makes story telling a lot easier for me and everything seems to run a bit more smoothly.
I'm still sad about Samson. I think it was probably one of my saddest deaths.
And I bet you are still sad about Samson. I know I would be too. Especially if you didn't know it was coming since it wasn't an ROS.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading your comments on Lakeside Heights' blog about their aging system. It sounds like a great system but since I only have 7 families and 1 uni household, right now, the way I'm playing is manageable. I'd be afraid I'd miss too much if I switched to that aging system now. But once I started getting into the teen # of households, I may look into switching.
I won't give anything away but Samson dying kind of paved the way for a bit of drama in my hood a couple of years down the track. So although it was sad, it didn't turn out to be all bad.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me started on this aging system because I seriously will not stop singing its praises. It's honestly the best decision I've ever made for my game. Everything makes so much sense now! You could work it with a small hood - it would just take a little bit of rearranging.
Can't wait to find out what happens. I usually read a post or 2 while I'm waiting for my game to load or sending a sim to a community lot or something. So depending on what I'm doing, I could get through a lot.
ReplyDeleteYou're not far away from it - I just checked and it all starts around the end of Round 19.
ReplyDeleteIt was just one of those things that I didn't plan but ended up working out better than anything I could plan. My Sims are better writers than me, lol!
*gasp* No! Aww, how terrible that Samson died! I was really hoping he'd work things out with Galen, and he has those babies! Oh I'm so sorry to see this happen.
ReplyDeleteRachel, this was such a shock for me. I really thought he'd got better! I was wrong, obviously. I was so sad about this when it happened. Still one of Sullivan's big tragedies. :(
ReplyDeleteI really liked Samson and it would have been nice for him and Galen to reconcile.