Wednesday 16 June 2010

Crystal

Round 27: Spring 2025

Caleb Moretti is 43, Cara is 36 and Anthony and Veronica are both 8.
(Nick is 22)

Narrated by Caleb Moretti

The kids have been begging for a dog and we finally relented and bought a little Jack Russell named Dakota.

Cara and I were a little reluctant previously but the kids promised they'd be the ones to take care of it. So far, so good.

I almost wish we'd chosen a more placid dog though. Dakota really gives the twins a run for their money in the energy stakes.

The kids are rowdy enough even without a crazy dog in the mix!

Anthony and Veronica are still running their poor nanny ragged. They're active children but they do like to read at least, which must be a nice break for her.

Cara and I both get home pretty late some nights. Anthony will usually run to greet us...

...while Veronica is usually in the process of putting herself to bed.

Veronica knows exactly what's coming when the nanny gives us her rundown after we get home from work, so she hides.

The truth is that Anthony is fine on his own. Veronica is the instigator of most of the mischief the twins get up to. Anthony just follows along. I hope this is all a phase!

Even though Cara is finished her internship, she's still bringing home a lot of work. I guess this is the line of work she's chosen and we'll all need to get used to it. She's been particularly stressed lately though.

So what better time to take our long-awaited holiday?

The kids ran wild as soon as we got there, to no one's surprise.

Veronica was in fine form, much to Anthony's chagrin.

At this point, I was so glad we'd decided on camping. Stopping Anthony and Veronica from running around the halls of a hotel is not my idea of a good time. At the campground, they could run around as much as they liked.

They did really love the beach though. We'd never taken them before.

Cara is originally from Cape Elizabeth, so she was keen to teach the twins about some of the customs and traditions there. They didn't quite understand at first...

...but they knew more than I did by the end of our trip.

I was a bit surprised by how forward some of the girls we came across were. One offered to set me up on a blind date with one of her friends, completing ignoring my wedding ring and the fact that I must have been twice her age.

Seriously, she was barely older than Nick. Flattering, I guess, but no.

The twins convinced me to shell out $75 for a fire dancing lesson. Money well spent, as you can see. They were much more impressed with the instructor's skills than with mine.

Our days were packed full of activities to keep the kids occupied. Cara and I didn't really get to relax until night time when Anthony and Veronica were fast asleep.

Cara relaxed, anyway. Night time was when my mind usually wandered and I started thinking about Nick.

Cara keeps telling me to try not to worry so much and that Nick will be okay. I know he will be but I can't help it.

We haven't told Anthony or Veronica anything about Nick and Adrienne and that whole mess. I'm not really sure how to bring it up with them, or if I should.

Nick doesn't really want to say anything to them anyway. He tries not to think about it a lot of the time.

So Nick keeps things pretty light with the twins. I guess if it turns out that he is the father of Adrienne's baby, we'll tell them then.

I really hate that Nick is going through this at all. He's coping pretty well, though he's obviously still pretty down. I went through the same thing with Abigail. The situations aren't identical - we'd been together for longer and already had a kid together - but I still have a good idea of what Nick is feeling right now.

If the baby turns out to be his, Nick is talking about raising it himself. I don't know how he's planning on doing this and I don't think he does either. Abigail and I raised him together for the first 7 years and it was still really tough. Nick's main concern is doing the "right" thing and to him, that's what the right thing would be.

I'm really hoping the baby turns out to be the other guy's. I would never say I regret keeping Nick and Abigail and I did a great job with him, if I do say so myself. But things would have been a lot easier if we'd been even a few years older.

I don't think I can say I'm as stressed as Nick over all this but it's probably close. I can't wait until this baby is born, Nick can do the paternity test and we can find out for sure.

Notes:
  • Title is from Crystal by New Order.
  • Cara rolled this round's ROS "Deadline to write an article within 24 hours (demoted if failure)". Fortunately, she got it done, so she got to go on holiday instead of spending her time working her way back up to Resident.
  • I love Anthony and Veronica's faces with Caleb's fail with the fire dancing. They didn't boo him; they just tutted and shook their heads in disgust!
  • Caleb and Cara are, for the first time ever, doing quite well financially. They're not rich by any means but Caleb's earning well over $1000 a day now as an Executive Chef and Cara's in line for a promotion to General Practitioner, so that'll be another pay boost for her too. That $10,000 she paid for her university degree really paid off!
  • It only occurred to me recently that had the thing with Adrienne gone another way, and Nick ended up being the father, it would have been like history repeating itself. I'm glad it hasn't turned out like that for Nick though - much easier for him to move on from Adrienne once the truth about the baby's paternity comes out.
  • When I loaded the Morettis' lot, Cara had the want to be friends with Adrienne. Um...don't think that would go over well with your stepson, Cara! Caleb, however, had the want to be friends with Nick's Mystery Girl. How weird is that? I don't even remember them meeting so Caleb must be psychic!

14 comments:

  1. Ha! The twins are so cute! I'm glad to see that Caleb and Cara are doing well financially finally. Poor Nick, he's really beating himself up about this. That little piece of pixelated goodness shouldn't have to endure that! I'm super stoked to see his mystery girl!

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  2. This mystery woman is driving me nuts. I hope we get to meet her soon.

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  3. I'm glad that they are really getting on their feet. But like my hubby says you gotta spend money to make money. And that investment to go to school has really started to pay off!

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  4. Ah Nick Nick Nick... that whole situation is so screwed up. Funny, but you're right that it would be like history repeating itself!

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  5. Thanks for reading, everyone!

    Tessa, I know, poor Nick. He's been through a lot in his 22 years! Hopefully, he'll forgive me when I finally let him hook up with the girl I keep talking about!

    Apple Valley, not very soon but sooner than I was originally planning!

    Riverdale, exactly! I'm always proud of my Sims when they finally get into a good place financially (and otherwise, come to think of it)!

    Lunar, it really is a bit of a mess, isn't it? Once the paternity test is done, Nick can get on with the business of being young and carefree. ;) Until then, he's got the possibility of having the same worries his own parents suffered through hanging over his head.

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  6. Nick just pulls at my heart strings :(....poor guy! I can't wait to see this mystery woman, I've been trying to see if I could figure it out lol

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  7. You keep talking about Nick's mystery woman and I finally want to meet her!!! :p

    I'm glad the §10.000 they spend on Cara's school is finally paying off. It seemed like they really deserved that vacation.
    Do you build you vacationlots yourself, of do you use the Maxis-ones?

    Funny, I've always thought of Cara as family-sim, it's only just now I realized she isn't ... I think she reminds me of Meadow Thayer, don't know why.

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  8. Mizzgin03, I'm as excited as you guys are! I know who she is, so there's no mystery for me but there's a lot of impatience! LOL.

    Tanja, heh, that's probably the last tease I'll post for a while! We have a little while to go before Nick and his mystery woman get together. You've all met her before though, just to be clear!

    The campground was built by me but the other lots are Maxis but with various levels of refurbishing. The lots I changed the most were the hotels, which you obviously didn't see in this update.

    And nope, Cara's a Knowledge/Popularity Sim! She probably reminds you of Meadow Thayer because she has the same face template as Meadow. :D

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  9. Veronica is such a character. I bet she'll give Caleb and Cara a lot of gray hair when she becomes a teenager.

    Poor Nick, it must be nerve-wrecking to just wait for the baby to be born until he knows the truth. I'm so curious about the mystery girl! C'mon, tell us who it is ;)

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  10. Sari, oh, gosh, yes! I think Anthony will calm down a bit because he's not as likely to follow his sister around as a teen. But I think Veronica is going to be trouble!

    In game, Nick's wait is finally over! Adrienne had the baby last night in game and it's now living with the foster family. So you'll find out about the baby and the foster family in birthdays tomorrow. You'll still have to wait a bit for Nick's mystery girl though!

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  11. I've been lazy in commenting so let me catch up.

    LOL I like how Veronica puts herself to bed when she knows she's going to get in trouble. And Anthony looked so cute swinging his legs on the couch. He's just a cutie in general. I love the night shots at the beach. I love how the water looks. I really need to add the beach vacation area next. And I love how Nick is with his younger siblings. I'm an only child and I don't know how I'd take it if I all of a sudden had a ton of little brothers and sisters. Actually, I don't think I'd mind until I had to change diapers lol.

    Glad to hear that they're finally doing ok finacially. Being a doctor will definitely help out their money situation.

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  12. Danielle, I love the swinging legs animation. I never seem to be able to catch it so I was glad I got Anthony doing it.

    Nick's got 10 nice points and a Family secondary aspiration, so getting a bunch of siblings was quite welcome for him. Not everyone would have reacted so well! He probably would have preferred to get them around 10 years earlier but neither Caleb or Abigail were in a position to have kids then.

    I think Caleb and Cara will end up being quite well off. They're not having any more kids so they don't need a new house and this one is paid off and they're both in line for promotions. It's a relief for them, after so long struggling with money.

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  13. I can't figure out the mystery woman either!

    And ah, Caleb, he's also just as crush-worthy as his son! But at the time he and Abigail were going through that whole thing, I also remember having a Sim-crush on Jesse too! Maybe I just crush easily? I love them all, lol!

    I love to see Cara doing so well!

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  14. Laura, yeah, I love Caleb too. But I didn't really love him until he broke up with Abigail (and cut his hair). If I remember correctly, you felt the same way!

    Cara's done pretty well for herself. From a waitress at a Japanese restaurant to a resident at the local hospital. Not bad!

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