Saturday 3 July 2010

Lucky

Round 27: Autumn 2026
last update/next update

Gordon Nott is 30, Lia is 29 and Annabel and Georgina are both 2.
(Luc is 33 and Steve is 31)

Narrated by Gordon Nott

I was a little bit nervous when we found out Lia was having twins but Georgina and Annabel are two years old now and so far, fatherhood has been fantastic!


Lia was never as worried as I was, seeing she'd helped out with Tessa when she was a baby. She's such a natural as a mother.

I was jealous of the time she got to spend with them during her maternity leave. I hated leaving my girls to go off to work.

Once Lia went back, we sorted out our work schedules so we could minimise the need for a nanny. That's when I got a taste of what I was like for her at home alone with them! Now that they're walking, we have to watch them every second.

They sure are entertaining though. Sometimes I'll just be quietly reading and I'll hear a little giggle coming from the floor and there's Annabel, in hysterics at something or other!

They've both been babbling about robots lately, which has to be Lia's influence! She made a few toy robots when she was a teenager.

I think our sleeping in days are over, at least for the next few years.

Annabel is usually content to amuse herself in her crib for a little while after she wakes up.

Georgina is a different story. Georgina starts screaming the very second she wakes up.

I think I've terrified Steve with all my twin stories though. He's getting married soon but I don't know if he and Olivia will start a family as quickly as Lia and I did.

I keep telling Steve, I wouldn't be so keen for another kid if the good didn't outweigh the bad.

If I could get Lia on board, I'd actually love to have a huge family. I've always dreamed of having six kids and then watching them grow up, get married and have their own kids.

Lia was not impressed with that proposal at all!

We're trying for a third right now and Lia said once that baby comes, that's it! Three is the perfect size family for her. She got so exhausted when she was pregnant with the twins, so I guess I can't blame her.

We're very happy but we're definitely cramped in our little unit, especially with Paddy around. A backyard would be nice for him, as well as for the twins.

And really, Lia just needs a long break from our landlord. I've only had to deal with him for three years but Lia's been putting up with him since graduation.

So we've been looking around at houses for the past couple of months. We don't want to jump into buying but we've said that if a perfect house came along, we'd seriously consider it.

I happen to think we've found that perfect house. Lia isn't so sure.

She did at least agree to call the realtor and arrange an inspection.

It's such a great place. It's brand new. It's spacious - four good sized bedrooms as opposed to the three tiny ones we have now. Lia's just worried that it's completely empty and we'll need a lot of money to furnish it.

But for a four bedroom, it's a really reasonable price. And we'd be right across the street from Ione and her family and Lia's parents live just down the street. It's also got a great yard, perfect for the girls!

Lia wants to think about it. She didn't want to make a decision with the real estate agent hovering around. Which I admit was annoying.

I've been contemplating a career change lately. I don't really love working at the newspaper any more, so I've been looking around to see what else is out there.

Luc thinks I should just go ahead and quit. Quit and do what? I'd like to do environmental law but that's four years of study and $16,000 we don't really have.

Besides, it's not quite that simple when you have kids. I can't just up and quit. I've promised Lia I'll stick it out with journalism until we get settled in our new house and we can reconsider finances.

Yes, I finally convinced Lia that the house we looked at would be perfect for us. We're not going to find a better deal for the size house we want, so we should really seize the opportunity.

The house came along at just the right time too, because we just found out that Lia is pregnant again. We'd hardly even started trying!

I'm so excited already! I can't wait to meet this kid.

Lia is happy about it too but I think her enthusiasm is a little tempered by the fact that she's been so incredibly tired lately.

I think the fatigue might be even worse than it was with the twins! The other day, we'd just sat down to lunch and were enjoying the quiet while the girls were napping.

And then all of a sudden, Lia's head just fell forward and she'd passed out in her chili. Last time, she always felt like she was going to pass out but she never actually did!

She wasn't out for long but we're both hoping she doesn't feel this awful for the next nine months.

Extras:
It's been a while since I've had a big dog in a house with toddlers, I think, because I'd forgotten how cute they are together!

Paddy really loves Annabel and Georgina. He goes up and licks them all the time.

Notes:

  • Title is from Lucky by Radiohead.
  • How cute are Georgina and Annabel? They've both got Gordon's nose but other than that, Georgina looks quite a lot like Lia. Annabel is all Gordon, apart from her eyes.
  • I've moved the Notts into the new house and financially, they can probably do it without having to take out a loan. After I moved them in, they had about $28,000 left to decorate with. Not bad!
  • And yay, baby! I'm hoping for either a) a boy who looks like Gordon or b) a girl who looks like either of them. Lia's mouth is so hideous on males! The baby is due in Summer 2027. I think I can be pretty confident in saying they won't have twins. I forced myself to remove that fertility benefit they both had before Lia got pregnant and ACR is saying she's just got the one in there. When I bump her up to her second trimester, I'll find out for sure.
  • Do you ever put your Sim in a career and for whatever reason, you just don't feel like it suits them? I've always kind of felt that way about Gordon, so I'm thinking he and Lia might start saving up for him to go to law school once they get settled in their new house. It might take them a while but I guess they don't have to pay it all in a lump sum. It's 4 years, at $2000 a semester.

25 comments:

  1. The twins are so adorable, I'm glad that Gordon and Lia are enjoying their time with them. Yay!! Another baby, woohoo! I love that reaction sims get when someone passing out while eating, it cracks me up, and it looked so appropriate for Gordon!

    Poor Steve, Gordon probably scared him into celibacy forever :D I just noticed, but is it just me, or does Luc look a heck of a lot like his grandfather Floyd? I don't know, he just reminds me of him a lot :P

    Gosh, their new house looked great, and I'm surprised that they had that much left over, they'll be able to furnish it just fine!

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  2. Aww, a new baby is on the way! The girls are so darn cute :)

    I've had a couple of sims who I thought were on wrong careers. I change them to a different career if I feel like it. It's quite realistic because some people start on one career and then realize it's not for them and they try another career.

    Congrats on the new house! It looks wonderful. How on earth can your sims be so rich? All my younger couples who have bought a house are up to their ears in debt!

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  3. I thought they were married; I see that they still have engagement rings on. How did that happen?

    I'm happy for them for the new house. I thought the staging realtor scenes were pretty cool.

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  4. Thanks for reading, guys! I was dealing with a rather rude person earlier this morning and it's nice to come here and read such lovely comments.

    Tessa, yeah, I thought that was really funny too, as well as Lia's face when she finally woke up and got it out of the chili! I haven't had a Sim fall asleep in their dinner for a long time. I'm really careful with my pregnant Sims, because of the miscarriage risk. But I guess I wasn't watching Lia as well as I thought I was!

    Floyd died when Luc and Cordy were toddlers, so it's been a long time since they were in the same room together and I'd never thought to compare their pictures. But now that I have, yes, you're right! Luc's face is a little narrower, I think, but otherwise, he looks a lot like Floyd!

    I'm furnishing Lia and Gordon's house right now and yeah...they're not going to have any trouble!

    Sari, I should probably have some of my Sims change careers more often because you're right, not everyone figures out what they want to do straight away. I can only think of a few Sims who've abandoned a long term career to do something else.

    Lia and Gordon aren't really rich. The house was only $23,000, so they've got just over $50,000 in total. They're doing better than the other couples their age though, especially poor Ione and Evan. They're in up to their ears in debt, for sure!

    LaurelCrossing, yes, Lia and Gordon are married but for some reason, the wedding rings do not show up consistently and are often replaced by engagement rings. I can't figure out why but it happens with a lot of my couples. In a couple of the real estate agent pics, you can see that Lia is wearing her wedding ring.

    And thanks, I'm glad you like those pics. I had a tester Sim move into the lot so Lia and Gordon could check it out as visitors before they decided to buy it. ;) It was pretty fun to stage.

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  5. Ok, now I'm impressed at how cheap the house is :D Four bedrooms and only $23,000!

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  6. Funny that Gordon is the one wanting six kids And Lia is the one saying no. Their new house should work nicely once they decorate it and get some landscaping. Maybe a swingset for the girls.

    I love that they will be right by her family! The girls are really quite adorable! I wasn't sure how they'd be. I had trouble picturing Gordon as a girl haha. Paddy is so cute with them too. I really like the big dogs and kittens/puppies with toddlers. It's sad when he dogs die though. :( rachaels dog Duke was like that when she was a toddler and it was horribly mean of me to let him die. lol.

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  7. Sari, well, Gordon did say it was a good price! He wasn't lying. I've put a link to the house in today's Birthdays post.

    Maisie, yeah, I'm going by their LTW wants to figure out how many kids they want. I would have thought Lia would want more but with her awful pregnancies and her fretting about money, it makes sense that she's ready to stop. I don't think her nerves could take six kids!

    I figured out that Lia's family are actually right on the other side of town. I'm so dumb. I just saw Novak and didn't click it. They're actually across the road from Augustin and Naomi. But that IS Ione's house right by them.

    I think this is only the third round Gordon has had Paddy, so he'll be around for a little while yet. I'm even meaner than you. I shorten the dogs' and cats' life span so that it's more realistic. I age the Sims up 2 days per round but the pets lose 4.

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  8. You have to age the pets. They live too long the way EA did it. I started keeping track last round. Cats and small dogs get 12-14 year. And big dogs get 8-10 years. I didn't have to worry about birds. I can't keep them alive more than a play session haha

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  9. Maisie, very true! The way EA did it, the pets live about 40 years!

    I just saw your comment on not being able to picture Gordon as a girl. I meant to reply to that this morning but I wanted to say that he and Kendal have the same facial template. So Gordon as a woman would look like Kendal and that's probably what Annabel will look like when she's older too, apart from her eyes.

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  10. Well now I can't not see Kendal as Gordon, and Gordon as Kendal. *sigh* ;p

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  11. LOL, yeah, well, they're both former townies, so I was bound to get two with the same face somewhere along the line!

    I'm pretty sure the father of Adrienne's baby also has the same face.

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  12. Aww, another Nott in the family tree :P

    I also love the new house, and am impressed with the price tag, they got a good deal, gosh-it only cost ~230 t-shirts :P Don't you love simmish economy of scales $200 for a shirt, but you can get a decent house for less than $10,000?

    I agree, pets live too long. How do you age them, I haven't figured out a way yet?

    I think Sandy is the one sim I can't peg down a career for and she's 40+! Maybe because I don't really see her as working at all, she's like a big kid sometimes.

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  13. YES! The twins are super adorable! Especially with the dog. OH so many cute animations from TS2 that I miss.

    And Gordon and Lia are one very cute couple. They've really grown and matured since college.

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  14. Apple Valley, heh, if it's a girl, she might be the last Nott too! I'm not particularly desperate to further this surname any more. It's so hard to pair with first names, though I've already picked a boy name and a girl name for this baby.

    I had never thought of house prices in terms of how many t-shirts you could buy before! That's hilarious - the Sim economy really doesn't make much sense. It'd be great if houses in real life were so cheap but I guess exorbitant clothing prices for Sims kind of balance that out.

    I use InSim to age the pets. It's the only hack I've found that lets you do it by an exact number of days.

    I think Maia will end up a bit like that. I'll probably have her run Jace's shop eventually, because Jace is getting up there in years but I think she'd really be happiest not working at all!

    Lunar, aren't they little sweethearts? I love Georgina and Annabel. And Paddy.

    Gordon and Lia have definitely done some growing up in the past 10 years, especially Gordon! I didn't know if he'd ever get it together for a while there but he's turned into a good husband and father now.

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  15. The girls are so cute! lol at Gordon wanting six kids! Poor Lia, I can imagine she'd go crazy after six kids. ;)

    But yay for another baby!

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  16. Oh, and I meant to say that I have that same problem with the wedding rings too. If you look at pictures of Xander and Chelsea, you can see that their rings are engagement rings most of the time. Moving the Sim seems to reset their rings for me, so you could always move the Sim out and then back into the house and see if that fixes it. I'm usually too lazy to do that though and just don't worry about it. ;)

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  17. Look what I found!

    http://starlightsims.yuku.com/topic/34974

    That was a fun read! I was looking to find a fix on the bug where eyebrows disappear in uniforms. (Haven't found one yet, know of one?) and that old thread popped up.

    Poor Raffaella... she was your favorite sim, now I think Victoria is if I'm not mistaken.

    And seriously, Vincenzo is one "real" looking dude. He makes me want to confess to stealing cookies when I didn't. lol

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  18. Shana, yeah, Gordon doesn't have to carry the six kids! It always makes me laugh when it's the guy who wants all the babies. I'm only going by LTWs. I'm pretty sure they'll both roll the baby want again after this one is born but Lia's going back on BC!

    I think Laura has had the same issue with the wedding rings. I just checked out some pictures of my married couples who've moved since their weddings and it looks like you're right - they all have their wedding rings, even rounds later and after visits to community lots. I think I'm too lazy to move all my couples out and in again though!

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  19. Maisie, you snuck in while I was replying to Shana!

    Ha, if you click on the Sullivan tag, you can see all the Sullivan posts at N99. All the pictures and most of the text are here on the blog but I like to go back sometimes and read what I was saying about the hood then!

    Gosh, I don't know who my favourite Sim is now. I love Victoria but I also love Finn and Nick and Lia and countless others. It's much harder for me to pick a favourite now! Vincenzo was definitely a stern-looking guy though! Simona and Raffaella ended up looking mostly like Chiara though, so no more stern looking Sims in Sullivan!

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  20. Geordina and Annabel are adorable, I'm glad Lia and Gordon are going to have another one. I'd wish Lia would agree on having 6 kids if they are all going to be so cute, but when a pregnancy is as tyring as hers is, I understand that this one is the last.
    I love the pictures of Gordon and Lia in their new house. Gordon really wants it, it looks like he's making more of an efford selling it to Lia and realtor is!

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  21. Tanja, oh my gosh, no, none of my Sims are ever having six kids if I can help it! Gordon can want it all he likes, they're stopping at three, lol!

    The realtor probably knows how cheap the house is going for, so she doesn't need to do much selling! ;) It sells itself. Except to Lia, apparently!

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  22. I know what you mean about having a sim in a career that doesn't really suit them. That's why George Meadows was talking about getting into the Science career in their update. His personality makes him perfect for Natural Science but I forgot that his LTW was for regular Science. I'm having a hard time finding jobs that fit my current group of young adults (the ones that didn't go to college). 2 of them are pretty unmotivated and it'd be fine if they or their parents were rich. But that isn't the case.

    Anyway, the girls are so darn cute! And yay for another baby! I can't wait to see what the new addition looks like. And the house is very nice. I'm glad they were able to afford it AND had a good chunk of money to spare. But they do have A LOT of rooms to fill. $28,000 goes pretty fast. At least in my game it does. And I like how you staged the realtor. I have/had some "for sale" signs to put on lawns that would look cool for staged shots like these. I'll have to see if I kept them in my game.

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  23. Danielle, LOL, sounds like you might have a few Maia Novaks on your hands! That's exactly what is for Maia. I look at her and think, "I know you'd like to be a lady of leisure and who wouldn't, but that just isn't on the cards for you!"

    Heh, there's a bit of empty space in the Nott household right now, because of the lack of decor. Next time I play them, I'm going to add some to make it look a bit more homey.

    I used to have those signs in my game! Of course, I deleted them because I figured I'd never have any use for them, lol!

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  24. I just LOVE Lia's sweater! Awww, the girls are adorable! And the dog too, lol! I'm happy to see them doing well. I suppose I can stop being skeptical of Gordon now, huh? ;) He's proven himself.

    I hope Gordon does get to go to law school! I'm feeling the same way about my Micah and his career right now, and politics is his LTW - but he's just not going anywhere because of the structure of it, and he's so young. I just don't see him sitting around on city council forever. So it might be something he gets back into later in life.

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  25. Laura, isn't it cute? It's a from fairly old set by Confide at TSR that I rediscovered a couple of rounds ago. I find it so hard to find winter outfits for my Sims!

    Yeah, I think Gordon's grown up a lot and we've all been suspicious of him for long enough now! Even Jace has got over his grudge.

    Sims and their careers - it seems so easy for them to stagnate if they're not the types to want to study for promotion! I've definitely got law school in the works for Gordon. Once this baby is born, I'll have to have a closer look at their finances. They can always pay it off in installments, rather than $16,000 at once! Had I thought of it, I would have switched Owen Novak's career too, when he was about Gordon's age. Dude's been stuck as a paralegal for FOREVER!

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