Cliche Guevara

Round 26: Autumn 2023

last update/next update

Adam Gottlieb is 68, Athena is 62, Amelia is 34, Wade is 33, Sophie is 10, Noah is 5 and Emma is 3.
(Hanna is 68, Rose and Joanna are both 28)

Narrated by Wade Gottlieb

Mum just received word that final vote counting for the elections is done and she can now officially start her second term as governor! Everyone's very proud around here right now.

Mum talks about business even during her downtime, so it's obvious to anyone how passionate she is about the job. I think Dad was half-hoping she'd not run again and settle into some kind of semi-retirement, like he's done.

Mum's two years away from pension age though and she's not keen on slowing down. It's a stressful job though. She gets phone calls from residents about this and that 7 days a week.

One thing Dad is happy about is that Mum's position as governor has meant she's become closer to my aunt Hanna, Dad's twin sister. It wasn't that they didn't get along before but they never had much to do with each other. Now they're good friends and she's over all the time.

Much of the time, they're talking shop. Aunt Hanna is the education representative to the city council, so she's got a lot to do with the university overhaul which Mum is overseeing. Right now, the library is the big project. The students are apparently getting a little restless without one!

Sophie's already thinking about her own career, it seems. For the past year, she's been begging Dad to let her work at the restaurant with him and he finally relented.

She wasn't so thrilled that she had to wear her good clothes...

...but she was so excited that she had a "job".

Dad was a bit worried that Sophie would annoy his employees but she's charmed them all, apparently. Dad's host, Corbin, has daughters close to Sophie's age, so he doesn't mind her company.

Dad says she goofs off a lot. Sophie misses the spiral staircase we had in our old house and she's apparently been going nuts with the staircase in the restaurant.

But she does actually help out, in the limited way that she can. Sophie's too young for actual cooking or serving - maybe in a few years.

A few times, she's played piano for the patrons. Mum is very proud of her 10 year-old granddaughter performing somewhere other than a primary school music room! She taught her to play, so she claims credit for Sophie's talent.

A couple of weeks ago, Amelia and I drove back to Exeter and had dinner at La Magnifique.

There were plenty of people there in their slob wear, seeing there's no dress code like there is at the Claudette.

It was a special occasion for us though, so we were dressed as such. Amelia was promoted to Executive Chef and we thought that was worth a celebration. Amelia is very excited that she's now her older brother's superior at work.

We celebrated a little more once we got home too. I always think Amelia is gorgeous but she looks so amazing when she's all dressed up.

We both fell asleep very happy that night.

I feel like I'm enjoying my time with Amelia so much more now that I know there's no more kids coming. Amelia still wants a fourth but she's content to stop at three. Three is good.

We're thisclose to having all the kids off at school - Emma starts pre-school in a matter of months and it's going to give us a lot more freedom.

Pre-school cannot come fast enough!

Of course we love Emma but she's a very demanding three-year-old, much more so than Sophie or Noah were. Her current trick is refusing to use the potty just because she can.

At least we got her walking and talking with little issue.

I haven't said much about Noah and that's because he's a pretty quiet kid. He's not shy - none of our kids are - but what he really seems to like doing is his homework. He runs up to his desk with Dad every afternoon and they do it together.

He'd probably be happy doing anything with Dad though. Both Sophie and Noah idolise him.

It's a shame doing homework with Grandpa has lost its sheen for Sophie. I guess she takes after me and Amelia. Amelia just wanted to be done with schooling forever the second she finished high school. I somehow managed to graduate college, despite not really studying that hard. So we're not academics.

Sophie would rather practise baking. I can't blame her, but we have to be responsible parents and get on her back about the whole homework thing. Skipping it won't do her any favours. We promised her she can choose her own dress for Joanna's wedding if she does her school work every afternoon and so far that's working as a bribe.

Mum and Dad are paying for Joanna and Rose's honeymoon as a wedding gift to them. Rose was a little reluctant to accept it but Joanna feels it's her right, seeing they paid for our honeymoon. They did, so I guess she's got a point there.

They're both insistent that they will still be getting married and having the reception at their house, no matter how much Mum and Dad try to push them to go for something bigger. Rose already had to lay down the law about that with her dad right after they got engaged and they're got the same issue with our parents now.

Joanna knows Dad's not trying to be pushy. He really is just excited. He's excited for the wedding, for Joanna being married in general and he's definitely thinking about more grandkids!

Extras:

Okay, so it's really late here right now but I took cute photos and I want to use them, dammit! So, I give you pic spam. :D

Filippo is my best grandpa. He's got like 6 gajillion grandchildren(okay...he has 13) but he rolls up wants for all of them. While he was over at the Gottliebs' place, he wanted to Talk to Hope and Talk to Nick. It's very sweet.

Will you look how cute Noah is? I made the kids a bit shorter last time I did everyone's heights and the 4 and 5 year olds are super cute.

Notes:

• Title is from Cliche Guevara by Against Me.
• Wade has 27/30 bugs and I think when I checked Aaron and Maia the other day, they had 26 each. Hopefully, one of them can finish the collection before they die. Fingers crossed!
• Speaking of Wade, it would be really nice if he'd roll up a skilling want so he could get promoted past Scatmaster. Apparently, he's quite happy to work with excrement the rest of his life.
• Poor Lia...will her library ever get renovated? I'll get around to it eventually but I've been distracted by my university overhaul. I figured she's not really the type to be really pushy about it, so it makes sense that her request might be pushed to the side. Lia has plenty of other things on her mind; next time I play, I'm doing the wedding!
• Confession: I was not especially fond of Amelia when she was a teen but I just like her more and more each time I play her. She's very endearing! Do you ever have Sims like that? They just grow on you sometimes.
• I make it a point to reply to all comments but if I happen to miss one of yours over the next few days, don't take it personally! Blogger is being stupid right now and isn't displaying the comments correctly. I had two disappear completely from an update a couple of days ago, and one disappear the day before that. I managed to reply to them before they disappeared but it's possible that that won't always be the case. So feel free to post your comment again if you notice yours is missing and would still like me to answer. I love reading all of your comments and I don't want to miss any because Blogger is being an ass! :D