Friday 3 August 2012

Lucky now

Round 34: April 2039 (Autumn)
last update/next update

Aaron and Calvin Clarke are 36, Amy is 4 and Natalie is 2.
(James is 64, Madelyn is 59, Abigail is 56, Maia is 37, Ethan is 33 and Willow is 4)

Narrated by Aaron Clarke

Calvin and I really love watching Amy play with Natalie. We were a tiny bit worried that we’d get tantrums once she wasn’t the centre of attention any more but Amy has been great with her little sister.

Amy is at pre-school now and when she gets off the bus in the afternoon, the first thing she wants to do is see Natalie.

I don’t think she remembers a time when Natalie wasn’t around. She’s just a part of our family now.

It’s been much the same for me and Calvin too. In the beginning though, having two was definitely an adjustment.

A 2-year-old and a 4-year-old can be challenging but not compared to how exhausting having a baby and a toddler was. I work until 6pm and there were times when I could have just put my head down and fallen asleep right at my desk.

I even considered resigning and staying at home with the girls full time.

I think I could enjoy that, at least for a few years, although there are definite downsides to it.

Mostly though, I love spending time with the girls. I have to admit that the prospect of a quick nap in the middle of the day was appealing too!

I stuck it out though and was glad I did, because I ended up earning a huge bonus not long after I decided to stay.

I’d written an expose of sorts on the state of child care in Sullivan which, truth be told, is not fantastic. It’s an issue that’s become really important to me since becoming a dad, so I really delved into it.

My editor loved it but the child care workers’ union did not. My article was mostly a cost-benefit analysis of child care but the union thought it made them look extremely shady.

They wanted us to pull the article and not wanting to anger such a powerful union and make trouble for the paper, I reluctantly agreed.

I was disappointed, until Abigail asked me to do a in-depth interview feature series with both parents and child care workers, in the hope of making people think about the issues at hand and maybe even coming up with some solutions.

The series was wildly popular and boosted circulation by 25%. Abigail awarded me a bonus of $7000 as a reward.

Knowing I can bring in that kind of money to support our family really cemented my decision to keep working.

It made Calvin happy too; the idea of existing on one income makes him nervous.

We decided to celebrate my bonus by taking the kids out for pancakes that Sunday.

It was the first time we’d taken them out to eat and I’m happy to say both girls were on their best behaviour.

That’s got to work in our favour when we adopt a third child, which we’re currently trying to do.

I had to talk Calvin into it a little, seeing he’s never wanted more than two kids. But it honestly didn’t take long before we were both on board with the idea.

Amy and Natalie are wonderful and have made our lives so much richer. The way I look at it, why wouldn’t we want another one?

We’re in a good financial position too, even apart from my bonus. Calvin has retired from basketball and these days, he’s a coach. He’s extremely well-paid, much better than when he was playing.

We’ve told Amy about it and she’s cautiously optimistic about it. She’s still hoping we get a girl but I think she’s coming around on the idea of a brother too.

If we get a boy, she’s told us she will not be sharing her room with him. We’ve promised her that won’t happen.

Instead, Natalie will move in with her. Amy is actually quite thrilled about that idea!

I think she’ll want her own space again eventually but by the time that day comes, we’ll likely be able to buy a bigger house. For now, this place is suiting us fine.

Amy is very eager to meet the new baby and keeps asking when he or she will be arriving. “We’re not sure” is not a satisfying answer for her either.

We would have kept it from her until things were more certain but she’s a smart kid and she would have known something was going on.

We thought it was better to tell her, rather than let her imagine that it was something bad or scary that we didn’t want to tell her.

Besides, this time the social worker wanted to talk to her as well. Amy is old enough now that she can talk a little bit about our family and how she feels about a new baby entering the picture.

The social worker was great with her and she kept the “interview” very casual for Amy. Amy said she actually had a lot of fun with Tamara.

Thank God we weren’t trying to keep this adoption secret, because the cat would be out of the bag by now. It’s all she talks about with Mum and Dad, whenever they visit.

And Willow has heard all about it as well. She’s quite keen for a baby brother or sister of her own.

Maia and Ethan are trying to make that happen but they’re keeping things quiet in front of Willow for the meantime.

Maia got pregnant pretty quickly with Willow and River but it seems to be taking longer this time, so they’re not positive it will happen at all.

It would be fantastic if their third child was around the same age as ours. It’s been great for Amy to grow up alongside Willow and I’m sure it’ll be the same for River and Natalie as they get older.

Whatever happens, this will definitely be the last child for us. The adoption process is almost old hat for us now but it’s still draining. And after this little one, we’ll be ready to say goodbye to nappies forever!

Notes:
  • Title is from Lucky Now by Ryan Adams.
  • Aaron's bonus was the result of a chance card:


  • Aaron and Calvin were doing okay financially before the bonus but adoption is expensive in Sullivan. This new baby will cost the guys $10,000, so $7000 was especially welcome. I'm trying to remember to answer the chance cards with whatever I think the Sim would do, instead of just hitting something randomly. Aaron would totally offer to pull the article.
  • Calvin is Level 9 in the Athletics career now and will probably reach his LTW in the next couple of rounds. I'm not sure whether I'll keep him as a Hall of Famer then, or whether I'll look around for something else for him to do.
  • I've rolled for Aaron and Calvin's adoption month. :D They're going for another baby this time and I've added new facial templates, so I'm kind of excited to see what this new little person will look like.

28 comments:

  1. I love how well the chance card worked into the story. :D That's always very nice.

    Oooh, I am so excited for their new baby! I can't wait to see what he or she looks like. :D I wonder if it will be a boy?

    Amy and Natalie are so cute playing together.

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    1. I love it when I can work in a chance card! It makes their careers seem a little less samey. And it's extra nice when it works out so well for the Sim in question.

      Heh, I would love to see Aaron and Calvin have a boy too, even if Amy is rather unimpressed with the idea. ;) She'll live. But then, I don't mind if they end up with a little girl either.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  2. This is such a great little family. I love the 2 guys with their 2 girls and hope they end up with another girl too lol.

    The views from Abigail’s office are lovely! I really like the fountain right there. And I love how you wrote the chance card. Great choice he made, obviously! Glad they’ll have the extra money to go toward the adoption. A little while in the bank and that interest will build right up.

    I hope Maia and Ethan can get that third child and it’s in time for when Aaron and Calvin get their third. That’d be so fun seeing all 3 kids grow up as BFFs!

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    1. Three girls would be pretty adorable, wouldn't it? I don't think I've had that since Lia, Maia and Tessa.

      The view from Abigail's office is way better now that I can play with Lot Distance on Large/Extra Large! I used to only ever use one of the offices, because the other two just had a view of an expanse of grass. ;) But yeah, I think it's kind of sweet that Aaron was rewarded for doing what he would have viewed as the decent thing to do.

      I want so badly to tell you all when this new baby is arriving but I will refrain! It is coming though! :D

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  3. I saw that chance card in a walk thru at snooty sim, but it said $27000, so did your sim get jipped :P Natalie and Amy are so adorable together :)

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    1. LOL, oh, that'd be Pru's doing! I use her replacement for the journalism career and she did mention that she had edited some of the bonuses to more realistic levels! This must have been one of them! I'd never had this chance card before, so I had no idea.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  4. Great idea to make chance cards part of the story!
    Again, I so like to see how you furnish and decorate your houses. Love those family pictures on the walls - how do you get them to look so good, and at that size? I know that's not possible with the standard picture feature in the game.

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    1. I'm glad you like the chance cards being worked in. I think I stole the idea from Starr at Apple Valley but for the less silly chance cards, it really is a lot of fun.

      Thanks for the compliments on the house. And no, I no longer use the standard pictures in game for my family photos (though I've left the tutorial on how I used to use them up for anyone who might want it). I now use these lovely frames. They're great, because they're slaved so any picture I put on the horizontal/vertical master works on all the other horizontal/vertical frames. It's also a lot easier to have multiple copies of a certain picture. It does require basic knowledge of retexturing/recolouring in SimPE but putting new pictures on frames is one of the easiest recolouring projects you can do. I have a link to the tutorial I used to learn to recolour in my Resources post in my sidebar. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  5. Amy and Natalie are adorable little girls.I can't wait to see the new addition, if the adoption moves smoothly.Are they hoping for a boy this time?That bonus at work came at a great time and proved to help Aaron determine whether to keep his job.What happens next in the adoption process?I like how realistic the athlete career is with Calvin being a retired athlete at 36.

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    1. The Clarkes are a very sweet family in general, so I love how the girls have fit in. I hope the new addition fits in just as well. Aaron and Calvin aren't hoping for one sex or another - they'd be happy with either. :)

      They are basically finished the adoption process now. They've paid their fee, they've done their home study (which I didn't show much of this time, because they've done it twice before) and they've been approved. So now, they just wait. :)

      I make all my Sims retire from the Dance career at 40 and if they haven't yet reached Assistant Coach by they time they reach 40, they need to find a new line of work. I have previously had 55-year-old All Stars wandering around but it was never very realistic. I like it better this way!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  6. I love how you work out chance cards in your stories! And I'm glad that chance card worked out so well for them!

    Amy and Natalie are really cute together, and it's so sweet to see Amy play with Natalie I'm secretly hoping this rd baby is going to be a girl as well :)

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    1. I'm glad you like seeing the chance cards as a part of the story. It's always nice to be able to work something in about the Sims' jobs. It's extra good when it's a career I've actually got a lot for (though I'm still planning to make a dedicated journalism lot one of these days).

      Three little girls would be quite sweet, wouldn't it? It would definitely please Amy, that's for sure. ;)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  7. That is the perfect chance card for him, especially with his two little girls and wrangling career and family life! Really liked all the office pictures!

    And the girls are too sweet, I hope that Maia can have another baby, bummer it's taking so long, but there's always hope! Well until elder years anyway. I think that another girl would be sweet, I could just see them raising all these little darlings, maybe a brown haired girl, then they'd really have a diverse family!

    What templates are you using now? I've been slowly working on putting a few in from different sets for variation.

    Looking forward to their adoption! But a baby just means that we have to *that* much longer to see what the baby really looks like!

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    1. The chance card couldn't have come along at a better time, could it? Glad you enjoyed the office scenes. I still want to build a journalism lot one day though. I get bored with my Journalism/Law/Business scenes, seeing they always take place with the same backgrounds!

      Maia and Ethan seem pretty fertile and they do try for a baby every time, so I'm fairly confident they'll be able to have this third kid. You never know though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed still.

      I'm using these templates now. That's just Part 1. They're great, because there are like 5 different choices for each template.

      And yes, I'm a bit bummed about having to wait for a baby to grow up, lol, but I want the surprise. Maybe I'll make the baby six months old, so we don't have to wait as long!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  8. Thank you for that link!!! That is serious awesome! It's like what I've always dreamed of! Going to download some of those today! And I wholly approve of a 6 month baby adoption! ;)

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    1. You're welcome! I was so excited when I saw those, because I've always kind of wished someone would do something like that too. And as someone who has tried to make default facial templates, I'm impressed. It's not hard, exactly, but it is a lot of tedious work!

      I thought you might approve of that, lol! It's probably what I'll do. :)

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    2. Yes, thanks for that link! So many options!!

      Do you remember where you saw the tutorial on how to make default face templates? I might want to take a look at it. There are a bunch of sims who have interesting faces in my bin but I don't really want to create them and move them in.

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    3. I didn't remember but I Googled and found the exact tutorial I used before.

      Link

      I haven't looked at it again, so I don't remember what's involved. Just that it was quite boring, lol! The work is probably worth it in the end but I just didn't have the patience for it!

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    4. Thank you! It looks pretty boring lol so I gotta see if I'm up for doing it :).

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    5. LOL, I warned you! If I tried it again, I think I'd do maybe one template a day. I was trying to power through them and I got through like 15 or 16 over two days before I was like "eff this" and abandoned the entire project! I had planned to share them though, so I was making my own Sims for it, which made the whole thing take way longer than it would have otherwise.

      Good luck!

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  9. They are such a cute family! I love the way you work in the cards into the story. I laughed at the idea that Amy would be thrilled to share with her little sister, but balked at the idea of sharing with a brother. :)

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    1. Calvin and Aaron have a super sweet little family. I love them. Amy is such a little girly girl. If she gets a brother, she'll just have to deal, lol! Either way, Natalie will be moving in with her, not the baby.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  10. I think this might just be one of my favourite families in your hood, it's so adorable.

    And I hear you on the excitement about new face templates - I've just installed default replacements as well (have never used those) so now I can't wait for them to show up. :)

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    1. I'm glad you like Aaron and Calvin so much. I'm quite fond of them myself!

      It's such a geeky thing to get excited about but I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets a little thrill from the thought of new facial templates, lol.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  11. That kiss Natalie gave Any is adorable! How'd you do that, or was that autonomous?
    Another random question. The social worker: random townie, or actually in the social work career?
    I try to remember to answer the cards with what the sim would actually do, and not what experience has taught me is the "best" answer, which can be hard. for example, I usually answer that card with the other option.

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    1. Oh, that's just the regular Kiss (or is it called Family Kiss?) interaction! It just looks because Amy is smooshed down to be smaller than average with stretchskeleton, so when Natalie aims for her lips, she gets her forehead instead. It's an animation glitch but it's a pretty cute one!

      I can't remember if I've put that townie into the social worker career but if I haven't, I will eventually. Tamara has acted as the social worker in my game before, whenever I haven't had a playable social worker to use, so I might as well put her in the career officially. I'm in the process of reassigning my townies to various jobs. Without prodding, the game won't put them into custom careers, which is lame.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  12. I love Amy's face when she was told she'd get to share a room with Natalie. So much excitement! She is such a great big sister and absolutely adorable with Natalie. I can't wait to see how she is with another sibling. I can't decide if I'm hoping for a boy or girl for these two. Three daughters would be precious but I would also like to see how Amy would adjust to a brother...

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    1. Amy and Natalie are quite close, so neither of them will mind at all if they have to share a room...at least for the next few years or so! They've bonded well.

      I would kind of like to see Amy with a brother too but I can see how cute three girls would be as well. I'm kind of glad it's out of my hands! I'll just have to see what the game gives me. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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