Wednesday 1 December 2010

Only in dreams

Round 29: April 2030 (Autumn)
last update/next update
Abigail Carmody is 47, Jesse is 45, Mitchell is 11 and Austin and Lauren are both 9.
(Eliot is 44, Evan is 41, Nick is 27, Jessica and Emma are both 10)

Narrated by Jesse Carmody

Mitchell came to us recently and complained that his bedroom was "babyish" and asked if he could change it.


Abigail was a little hurt at first, because she decorated that room with Mina. When we moved in Mitchell loved it.

But Mitchell was 3 when we first moved in and obviously, his tastes have changed since then. He's 11 now and looking at the room, it is way too childish for a kid going off to high school next year.

Seeing we had a bunch of other stuff to get rid of anyway, besides Mitchell's things, we decided we'd hold a yard sale instead of letting it go to waste.

We sold Mina's old workbench, which I think was still hard for Abigail. But nobody here knows what to do with it and Mina might have been happy for it to go to someone who would use it.

We ended up making a few hundred dollars from the sale, which is certainly welcome. Abigail would have preferred to go without the cash register though!

Mitchell is really liking his new room. Most of the furniture was salvageable but all his little kid toys are gone, as well as the old pictures we had hanging up.

Mitchell's been very insistent lately that he's not a kid any more. He's too old for playing Cops and Robbers with Austin.

They'll play video games together but you're never too old for video games.

He's never been particularly into sports but his friend Tim is, so he plays a lot of soccer now anyway. Abigail works on Sundays, so I take all the kids down to the park to play.

Abigail worries about Austin and his laziness (which he gets from me), but soccer just isn't his game. He just ends up getting frustrated with it, because Declan beats him every time.

We can't usually tempt Lauren into playing any soccer, especially if Nick happens to drop by.

While the kids play, it's a good opportunity for Eliot and me to catch up as well. This time, I mentioned it had been a while since I'd seen Evan so we planned a boys' night out.

And no, it wasn't exactly a coincidence that I planned it on the night of Lauren's slumber party.

I wasn't exactly keen on listening to the giggling and squealing all night and was hoping they'd be fast asleep by the time I got home.

We went to a pub near where Eliot and Evan live and had a great time. We'll have to do it more often.

We played a game of poker, along with some college kid we didn't know who wanted to join in.

And we had a few beers, of course. It was a good night.

I was ready to be in trouble with Abigail when I got home, punishment for leaving her alone with five kids for the evening. She's chewed me out for way less before!

But all the kids went to bed without too much issue and apart from being a little loud, the girls were quite well-behaved. So Abigail was in a great mood.

But things have been really great for us in general lately. We've definitely had our rough patches since we got married but it feels like we're on sure footing now.

Notes:
  • Title is from Only in Dreams by Weezer. It's on Grooveshark, but I seem to be unable to link to it right now. :\
  • Abigail rolled the garage sale ROS this round. Seeing Mitchell's room needed an update really badly, I decided to tie it in with that. Austin and Lauren's rooms are actually more mature looking than Mitchell's was!
  • Abigail and Jesse, as you may remember, were experiencing some major ACR weirdness over the past few rounds which meant a lot of Jesse's romantic interactions towards Abigail were rejected. I kept thinking I'd fixed it but then it'd happen again and I'd scream in frustration! I have thankfully fixed that now, hopefully permanently this time, so this is like a whole new start for these two.

18 comments:

  1. I'm glad you got the ACR fixed. I still haven't fixed my ACR bugginess. My sim's One True Love keeps defaulting to his brother-in-law, thus he keeps rejecting his wife's advances. Ummm, sooo not like this sim. :)

    I do like the yard sale-it was very nicely done, even though I still liked Mitchell's "baby" room :P

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  2. Ooo I liked the yardsale. I wish there was only a money tray to lay on the counter that worked like register.

    I'm glad u got them all fixed and their having a better time. The slumber party was sweet. I love those things in the game and irl. The kids playing soccer was really cute. Can't believe Mitchell is off to high school in a year!

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  3. Apple Valley, that actually sounds exactly like the problem Jesse and Abigail were having! Abigail's One kept going back to Vanessa Gentry, which was very strange. What eventually fixed it was using InSim to uncheck the love and crush flags Vanessa was displaying for Abigail. Abigail didn't have any flags for her and in fact, I don't think they'd even met. It was a wonky relationship. I ran a check with Cyjon's Debugger and actually had a ton of them!

    http://drupal.cyjon.net/node/148

    None of the others had caused problems yet but I went ahead and fixed them anyway. I've done a few more checks since then and haven't found any more wonkiness.

    Heh, I liked Mitchell's baby room too. It's one of my most favourite kids' rooms actually. But still, not so appropriate for an 11 year old!

    Maisie, yeah, that would be great! I wonder if anyone's made one? I was trying to write in a reason why a family would have a cash register but ended up not bothering! I'm assuming they borrowed it from Jonas.

    I'm glad I fixed Jesse and Abigail too. Jesse waited so long for Abigail to get her head sorted, so he should at least get a solid marriage out of it!

    I'm loving doing more things with the kids lately. Everything they do just seems extra cute.

    Crazy about Mitchell, huh? I think he turns out pretty cute, if I remember correctly!

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  4. Glad you fixed the ACR thing. And I'm glad that they are back tonormal, no more rejecting flirts. LOL

    I just finished a garage sale, but I didn't take pics of it. It was fun.

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  5. A garage sounds like a fun and fabulous idea.

    I'm lucky that I haven't had ACR bugginess (knock on wood). In fact most of my couples seem to always want to do it with each other. I've just had one of my favorite sims fall in love with her neighbors, though she already has a serious boyfriend. That I might have to fix.

    Ah, growing up and being "too cool for school." Hopefully the twins don't take it too harshly.

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  6. Riverdale, me too. It was the most puzzling thing!

    I was surprised how much money the garage sale brought in. I think I wrote it in as a few hundred but it was closed to a couple of thousand! I had everything priced as cheap but they still did very well!

    townofwinfield, it was pretty fun!

    Honestly, I've been quite lucky with ACR weirdness too. Jesse and Abigail have really been the only affected couple and it was going on a long, long time!

    The twins have each other and friends outside of the family, so hopefully they won't be too bothered being occasionally spurned by Mitchell. ;) High school isn't so far away for them either.

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  7. Aww..Mitchell, in that 'tween stage!

    Tying the garage sale in to his room was genius! You always think of the best ways to work in ROSs like that. :)

    It's nice that Jesse got his boys' night out! I'm glad he got a chance to hang out with those guys.

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  8. Rachel, I know, they grow up so fast, don't they?

    Aw, thank you! I'm always quite proud of myself when I manage to tie the ROS into something, rather than just randomly slotting it in. It can be difficult, but making it part of the story is kind of the point, at least for me.

    Jesse was in major need of a boys' night out! I didn't realise his friendship with Evan had dropped so low. It made me sad, because they lived together for so long!

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  9. Adore the yard sale! How cute and creative! The shots are really well done!

    And I'm all for boys' night out. I'm glad Abigail didn't give him a hard time about it. A lot of women don't realize how much men need that time away from them.

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  10. S.B., thanks! I was looking for a particular table to use but I think I imagined it because I couldn't find it! But I like how it turned out anyway.

    Very true! We need a break sometimes, so it's natural that they would too. A few years ago, Abigail wouldn't have been happy about that at all though. Jesse's been a much better husband lately, so she didn't begrudge him that time.

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  11. I love the garagesale! And I love the whole reason around it too.
    But, aw Mitchell growing up, I can't believe he will be 12 soon!

    I'm glad you got Jesse and Abigail's ACR fixed

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  12. Tanja, thanks, I'm glad you liked it.

    Isn't it crazy? I'm excited for Mitchell to grow up though. Can't wait to see what's in store for him!

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  13. So, my comment didn't seem to work the first time... I'll try again...

    This is so sweet, that in-between stage when he's not sure if he's a child or not anymore... it feels very real, and I love the way you worked the garage sale into it.

    There's an invisible cash register recolour here... you could pretend the money tin was on a shelf under the counter or something...

    http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=200672&c=1

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  14. Blackcat, Blogger is being seriously screwy right now and has been for the past few days. It's been very frustrating to try to get comments to go through!

    Thanks. That in-between stage is a confusing one, as I remember. Still wanting to be a kid in some ways but desperate to appear "grown-up" in others.

    And thanks for that link! I wonder if there's a decorative money tray somewhere...then I could put the invisible cash register on top of it. Hmmm.

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  15. Aww, the slumber party looked like a lot of fun! How cute, lol. I loved the pictures of the girls in the room.

    Jessie with his hair cut actually looks really good. Have I said that before? I know I was sad to see his hair go quite a few updates ago, so it's taken me a while to get used to it, lol.

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  16. Lunar, I just remembered I did a slumber party (possibly this round) for these three at Jessica's house. I guess they just seem like the slumber party types to me!

    Ha, I don't remember if you said that, but I think he looks quite good too. I think I probably traumatised a few people, because I cut Nick's hair at about the same time, lol. It took me a while to get use to it too, for both of them!

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  17. Aww, little Mitchell is growing up. I liked his old room but he's right, it was getting a bit too babyish for him.

    I like the garage sale. I'm planning to do one for one of my younger couples when they are ready to move into a bigger house. Using an invisible cash register is a good idea.

    I'm glad you got all that ACR wonkiness fixed. I haven't had any problems with it but I think I'll check out Cyjon's Debugger anyway.

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  18. Sari, the poor kid must have been embarrassed to bring his friends over!

    I will definitely be making use of the invisible cash register for my next garage sale. Great find by Blackcat!

    Hope the Debugger helps you out!

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