Sullivan

Truly great thing

2012-02-04T09:00:00.015+11:00

Round 33: February 2037 (Summer)

Susannah Carmody is 27 and Zac Whitney is 3.

(Kimberly is 66, Sarah is 32, Rebecca is 28, Sam is 27, Audrey is 25 and Catherine is 3)

Narrated by Susannah Carmody

Sam and I had a few awkward months of living together once we broke up but for over a year now, it’s been just me and Zac.

I’m disappointed things didn’t work out with me and Sam, because it would have been nice for Zac to have both parents together. But I wasn’t in love with him and I’m now positive I made the right decision to end things.

I was pleasantly surprised at my mother’s reaction. I really did think she’d gloat, because she never liked Sam and she was never shy about telling me.

I don’t think she would have been quite as supportive if Sam had dumped me - that would have just given her another reason to dislike him. But as it is, she’s been fantastic.

Things are a lot better between me and Mum as a result. It’s a relief to not constantly be butting heads with her any more.

She has been mercifully silent about Sam. No questions about his job or anything else and no criticism. I don’t want Zac to hear anything negative about his dad, so that’s exactly what I want from Mama.

These days, it seems like she’s on the same page with me. She just likes to make sure Zac and I are doing okay.

And we are. Zac and I aren’t doing too bad on our own.

Zac was still so young when Sam and I split, so he doesn’t remember things being any different.

It’s harder for me, I think. If Zac feels like throwing a tantrum, I’m the only one around to deal with it.

I’m thankful that his tantrums are few and far between. He’s a really good boy most of the time.

Zac still sees his dad every single weekend. Sam picks him up on Friday afternoons, before I leave for work and takes him for two nights.

Zac loves his dad so much and I know he enjoys every second of his visits.

They do so many fun things together. Sam’s taken him to the aquarium a few times, which Zac cannot get enough of.

Even though I know Zac is having a great time, I still dread the weekends. The house is so quiet without Zac around.

I really miss him when he’s not here. I don’t know what to do with myself until Sam brings him back on Sunday afternoons.

I’m glad that things are amicable enough between me and Sam that the pick-ups and drop-offs aren’t too awkward. Sometimes Sam even stays for a coffee before he gets going.

I admit though, that things are a little bit weirder now that he’s dating someone. I’m not jealous but it’s still strange to think of him with somebody else.

He told me last weekend that he and Julia are talking about getting a place together, within the next few months.

That surprised me but it’s been going well between them. It’s the next natural step.

He wanted to run it by me, seeing Zac will be seeing Julia a lot more than he does now. When he goes to see his dad, he’ll be going to see her as well.

I actually feel okay about that. Julia has kind of a reputation for being a bit nuts in our social circle but she’s always been fine with me.

Most importantly, Sam says she and Zac really get along too.

Audrey and Rebecca took me out the next weekend, to celebrate my 27th birthday and I told them Sam and Julia’s news.

Predictably, Rebecca was horrified and thought I should “put a stop to it”.

I don’t think I’ll be doing that. I trust Sam’s judgement. He wouldn’t do anything he thought would upset Zac in any way.

Rebecca is not quite rational when it comes to Julia anyway. She’s one of the loudest voices proclaiming Julia’s craziness but Rebecca can hold a grudge just as well as Julia can.

I think they probably have more in common than she would care to admit. It’s best not to dwell too much on Julia when Rebecca is around though, so fortunately, we had plenty else to talk about!

I got a promotion to sous chef recently, so it was sort of a double celebration. It’s going to mean more money coming in, which is very welcome.

Sam is awesome about child support but neither of us make a ton of money. It’s still hard to make ends meet most months.

I was very jealous when Audrey told me about Jack’s trust fund, which is going to let them buy a house together, with probably a good bit left over as well.

He won't have access to the money until the day he turns 25, which is not for a couple of months. But still, that is so exciting!

I would love to be in a position to own my own place one day. It’d be so nice to not have to worry about rent any more. Not to mention to be able to paint the walls or put up wallpaper! As nice as my landlord is, she doesn't allow tenants to change too much of the decor.

It would be a challenge to save for a house on my salary but I’m hoping this won’t always be a single income family. I would still really love to get married in the future.

Things didn’t work out with Sam but I’m still a romantic. Sarah’s been married for almost seven years now and she and Nick are so happy. I hope I can have that one day.

Zac would love a little brother or sister too, based on what he’s like when Catherine comes over.

They’re only a few months apart, so they have a fantastic time together. He’d really enjoy having a playmate around all the time.

Plus, Sarah and I are so close and it’s been so valuable to have someone who shares all your childhood experiences and memories with you. I want Zac to have that too.

So when I go on a date with someone, I keep all that in mind. I don’t tell them all that upfront but I do mention Zac. Some of them go pale just hearing I have a kid.

That’s usually a good sign things aren’t going to work out. Zac and I are a package deal and I need someone who’s okay with it.

I don’t want to jinx it but I think I might have finally found somebody like that. His name is Daniel and we’ve been out a few times so far.

I always internally cringe before I tell guys about Zac, hoping they won’t freak out. Daniel was surprised but I don't think he was too bothered, thankfully.

Every time we talk, we always seem to find something else we have in common. Daniel majored in art at university, just like I did.

He eventually wants to get his Master’s and become an architect, like Sarah did. Not only that, but at the moment, he happens to be working on a construction site for a building she designed!

He’s just a really lovely guy. We can talk for so long, with no awkward pauses or anything. Daniel is kind of a brain, so he seems to know a lot about everything.

I haven’t let Daniel meet Zac yet. It’s a bit early for that, so Daniel’s mostly been keeping me company on the weekends, when Zac is with Sam.

Things are going well though, so who knows? If our relationship heads the way I’m hoping it will, maybe I’ll introduce them sooner rather than later.

Extras:

No, your eyes are not deceiving you; Zac does look completely different than he did last round. What happened was that before Sam and Susannah got together, I did genetic plastic surgery on him to remove his Goopy-like features. Recently, I tried to change his hair in the mirror and found that when I did that, his face went all Goopy-like again (the same thing happened to Zane and Chloe).

So I remade them all and while I was at it, I grew Zac up to see if he actually looked anything like Sam. No. No, he didn't. So I made a new Zac with CAS clones of Sam and Susannah. Old Zac must have inherited Sam's original Goopy face but this Zac is a proper mix of Sam and Susannah's genetics. And is much cuter, if I do say so myself. Here is some spam!

Don't mind those two weirdos in the matching dresses in the background. They are out there constantly, always on the swing. I find it a little unsettling, honestly.

Notes:

Title is from Truly Great Thing by Sebadoh.
Ugh, I am so glad to just get this update out! I would have had it up two days ago, if not for my desperation to "save time", which always ends up wasting time. It's way too boring to go into but I'm very relieved to be finished with this!
Susannah rolled the You Deserve Better! ROS this round. I think this was the first time I rolled that one for a single Sim. Anyway, I was always planning to let her start dating again this round but I was going to let her date around a bit more, rather than pairing her up with her highest chemistry match right away. But the ROS thought differently, so along comes Daniel. He's a CAS Sim I turned into a townie a long, long, long time ago. The attraction score is 119, so they have 3 bolts.
There are lots of complications when dating with children but being that Susannah is a very optimistic type, I don't think she'd dwell on them too much. She'd worry about them when/if they crop up. ;)
Julia and Sam have been together for almost a year now, so I'm going to move them in together. And add them to the play schedule! I forgot to do that at the beginning of the round. I'm not going to do the same living arrangements I did with Nick with Zac, where I had him living one year with Abigail and one with Caleb. A visitation set-up seems much more realistic.

Fair

2012-01-31T09:00:00.004+11:00

Round 33: February 2037 (Summer)

last update/next update

Maia Novak is 35, Ethan is 31 and Willow is 2.
(Lia is 40, Nick, Aaron and Calvin are all 34, Catherine is 3 and Amy is 2)

Narrated by Maia Novak

I took a whole year’s maternity leave when I had Willow, so I had plenty of time at home with her.

I really needed it too. I was always so unsure about motherhood, so having all that time alone with Willow made me confident that I could handle it!

It was a huge adjustment, especially because Willow wasn’t such a great sleeper in the beginning but we’ve done pretty well with her.

I know I'm biased but Willow is such a special little girl.

Which I guess is how Ethan talked me into trying for another one so soon. I’m due with our second child in May.

I wasn’t expecting to get pregnant so fast, now that I’m a little older. Maybe I take after Mum, who was 45 when she had Tessa.

Knowing there’s another little one on the way has made me desperate to get Willow potty-trained before my due date. I do not want to be dealing with two sets of nappies!

She’s a bit unsure about the potty right now, but I’m hoping it “clicks” for her soon.

I’m lucky enough that Ethan doesn’t mind being on nappy duty, or any of the other undesirable tasks of parenting. So at least it’s not all left for me to do.

He’s such a natural with Willow. I love watching them together.

Ethan is an amazing husband too and he totally spoiled me on my birthday. I turned 35 this month, which feels a bit strange to me. I still feel like I’m barely out of my teens sometimes.

For my present, Ethan and Willow bought me a parrot, who I named Admiral.

He squawks all day, which I’m sure some would find annoying. I love listening to him "talking" though.

Because I know Ethan probably spent more than he should have on Admiral and the cage, I wasn’t expecting to get anything else. But Ethan had other ideas; he took the day off work and took me out for a very long lunch instead.

He even asked Aaron and Calvin to come over to watch Willow, which they’ve done for us a few times so far.

Willow adores Amy, so I knew we wouldn’t need to worry about her while we were out on our date.

We went to a restaurant not too far from our house. It was decorated in a botanical theme - right up both our alleys!

The food was nothing fancy but very tasty anyway. But really, just spending time with Ethan was what I enjoyed the most.

Ethan had planned to take me for a walk in the park across the road but the rain put a stop to that!

But we had so much fun anyway. It had been a long time since we’d been on a date. After this baby arrives, it might be a while before we get to go out again, so I’m glad we took advantage while we could.

When we got back, Aaron and Calvin hung around a bit to tell us about their upcoming adoption. They’re hoping to adopt an infant this time. It would be fantastic if it happened this year.

They’re so eager to become parents again and I just don’t want them to have too long a wait.

We were both so thrilled when Aaron and Calvin adopted a daughter so close to Willow's age. We had visions of them growing up best friends.

It's a little early to tell whether they'll really be best friends but they do enjoy it when we arrange play dates for them.

Willow’s already got quite a few “friends”, for such a little girl. Nick’s daughter Catherine is really taken with her.

Catherine is older than Willow, so she tends to take the lead when they play but it’s still very sweet.

Nick is a little envious that Ethan and I are having another. He and Sarah want a fourth child but they can’t swing it, financially.

I can’t imagine having four kids - I think Ethan and I will stop after this one - but Nick and Sarah are exactly the types who could handle such a huge family.

Come April, Lia and Gordon will find out what four kids is like for themselves. They found out they were expecting a little “oops” about a month before I found out I was pregnant.

Lia was really nervous about it at first but she’s a tiny bit more relaxed about it now. As relaxed as Lia gets, anyway; she’s kind of high-strung.

At least she’s not so worried about miscarrying any more, now that she’s into the third trimester. Lia is actually excited about this baby now. It was completely unexpected but she has come to love the idea over the past six months or so.

It’s been quite fun being pregnant together. We’ve been getting together more frequently than usual, just to hang out and talk.

Willow loves her Aunty Lia, so she’s been enjoying this turn of events as much as we have.

Lia has started her maternity leave a little early but I’m still working. I specialise in graduations with my events planning so that's currently very slow. But I now have Rosa Lucida to take care over, so most of my time is being spent on that.

It’s hard work, which I don’t think I ever really appreciated until Dad handed the reins over to me. I really am on my feet all day, which is extra hard in my present state!

I also have no experience in sales, so I don’t think I’m doing the best job possible at the moment.

I still remember how to use the cash register from when I helped out at the shop in high school though, so there’s that.

I can’t do this on my own, so I’ve been on the phone with some employment agencies, looking for someone I can hire as a manager. I have every intention of keeping Rosa Lucida in the family but I need someone to take care of the day to day stuff.

I hope I find someone soon, because I am just so exhausted and sore when I get home. Although it is nice to have an extra excuse to get Ethan to give me a back rub!

I’ll be happy if I can hire somebody by the beginning of March. Then I can just kick back until April and wait for Baby Novak’s arrival.

Notes:

Title is from Fair by Ben Folds Five.
Maia and Ethan seem like they'd be animal lovers, being nature Sims, hence Admiral. I didn't realise Sims actually earn nature enthusiasm from interacting with the bird though. I like how that worked out, not that Maia or Ethan ever have trouble keeping their enthusiasm up. They're two of the few Sims I have whose OTH is almost always maxed out.
My updates have been really toddler-heavy so far this round, or at least, it feels like it! Amy, Willow and Andrew in the first update of 2037, then Andrew's birthday yesterday and Amy, Willow and Catherine today. I'm playing Susannah and Zac next too, so it will continue. ;)
I ended up hiring Amber Dawn to work at Rosa Lucida. I like to fill spots at owned businesses with playable NPCs, where I can.
Maia and Lia's pregnancies feel like they're going by super-fast! Keep your fingers crossed that one of the babies inherits Maia/Lia's nose. It doesn't seem to be very dominant but it would be nice if I didn't lose it.

You say it's your birthday, February 2037

2012-01-30T09:00:00.000+11:00

Round 33: February 2037 (Summer)

This February, Andrew Clarke turns 1!

Big brother Jude's personality was a bit surprising but Andrew has the kind of personality you'd expect from a child of Josie and Troy.

Comparisons:
I'm going to do this, just because I always do, but there's not much point! Andrew is a total clone of Troy.

Andrew...
his dad Troy...
and his mum Josie.

See? I don't know if I've ever seen a kid look more like one parent than Andrew does! Andrew's jaw is a little narrower than Troy's was but I did surgery on Troy after that toddler picture and Andrew has inherited Troy's new jaw. It's definitely not Josie's jaw. Jude inherited that though. After looking at Andrew, I'm realising just how much of a mix Jude is.

Lingering still

2012-01-28T09:00:00.014+11:00

Round 33: January 2037 (Summer)

last update/Elspeth's last update/next update

Sophie Gottlieb and Lila Sitko are both 24 and Elspeth Romilly is 23.
(Amelia is 48, Connor and Camilla are both 24 and Oliver is 21)

Narrated by Sophie Gottlieb

I sometimes get a little bored at home if I’m on my own, so I tend to do a lot of cooking to occupy myself.

It’s a lot of fun and as a bonus, I’m improving my skills for when I finally get to work in an actual kitchen, at a restaurant a bit classier than Cluckin’ Bell.

I pretend I’m cooking things for Elspeth and Lila and that’s sort of true. They never need to worry about dinner after work, because I always have something ready. I’m so lazy with cleaning and this is my one contribution to the household.

But in truth, I’m cooking for them but doing a lot of “tasting” at the same time. It’s definitely showing when I look in the mirror too. I just don’t seem to be able to burn off the calories like I once did.

Mum says it’s genetic. The same thing happened to her, although not until she got pregnant with Noah.

I’m just lucky enough to start packing on the pounds before I even get knocked up, I guess. But I’ve thought about it and decided I don’t really care so much. I’d rather be a little pudgy than work out.

Though I did try that a couple of times, with Lila. She goes a couple of evenings a week, after work and she loves it. I thought I might too.

It wasn’t quite as fun as I’d envisioned. The last time we went, the session ended with Lila abandoning her treadmill so she could nag me to take my hands off the rails of mine.

I was so relieved when she ran into Connor and forgot about me.

I ended up sneaking off to get a massage instead. I think that’s the only possible thing you’ll catch me doing at a gym any time soon.

I’m on my feet all day at work, so in my off time, I like to just veg out.

I do love my job though. It’s not at a fantastic restaurant - just a cafe at a bowling alley - but I am finally out of fast food! That alone is thrilling.

I still want to be actually cooking the food, instead of serving it but this pays better than my last job, with better hours. I’ll get there.

Lila and I have been living here for two years but it’s only since Elspeth moved in that we’ve spent any time at all in the back garden. It’s a gorgeous little place and the best part is that our landlord takes care of all the upkeep for us!

We talk about everything but we love swapping dating stories. Elspeth and I are both single, so we have a few. I like to get out there much more often than she does, so I tend to have more!

I’ve definitely dated a few duds since Jack and I broke up but hey, they make for good stories!

Lila sometimes skips our girl talk sessions and makes all-day plans with Connor instead.

Neither of them have had much luck with romance before but this seems to be it for them.

I fully expect Lila will be the first one to move out of our flat. Not soon but it’ll happen.

Then it'll just be me and Elspeth. I’ve grown even closer to Elspeth since she moved in with us. We've always been friends but we've never really confided in each other much.

That's changed lately. Last time we were home without Lila, Elspeth confessed to me that she has “a thing” for Josh.

I don’t know why she couldn’t have developed this “thing” for him when he was available. He’s going out with Veronica now.

I’m trying to encourage her to date other people but she’s going at it quite half-heartedly.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of the guys she’s been on dates with but she always comes home saying there was no spark, or they were boring, or they were dumb, or “not her type”.

I keep telling her sometimes it’s worth it to give someone a chance, even if they’re “not your type”. But I think she’s just decided no one but Josh will do.

The guy I’m dating right now, Oliver, is not my type, normally but we just really clicked, right away.

He approached me in a clothing store, chatted me up and then asked me out.

I was a little wary, because he’s still in college but I decided to give him a shot. He’s only three years younger than me, which isn’t that much of an age gap.

Initially, I didn’t think we’d have anything in common but that hasn’t been a problem at all. I don’t think we’ve ever had any awkward silences, even early on.

He’s even willing to listen to me talk incessantly about food, though he’s definitely not a “foodie” like I am.

Oliver is more into sports but just as a hobby. Career-wise, Oliver wants to join the SCIA, which is also Connor’s eventual plan.

He’s not so serious like Connor though, he’s very easy-going. And he’s very cute too, which is a nice bonus.

Camilla especially is so excited for me. She keeps asking me when I’m going to get “serious” with him.

I guess I’ve been talking about him quite a bit lately!

Oliver is just coming out of a five-year relationship, so we’re not even talking about where this might lead, if anywhere. We’re just enjoying getting to know each other and we’ll worry about the other stuff when we need to.

Extra:

This was an outtake from setting up the last picture. I think it's adorable!

Notes:

Title is from Lingering Still by She & Him.
Sophie rolled the "packing on the pounds" ROS this round, so she was knocked down one fitness level to Fat. So far, she seems pretty happy as she is but she's Pleasure/Romance, so she may eventually roll the want to Get Fit. Until she does or until she exercises autonomously, she'll be keeping her curves. ;)
So a bit about Elspeth's wants. Since the kiss with Josh when they were in college, she's been intermittently rolling "Get Engaged to Josh" wants. I was keeping an eye on it, just to see if she'd roll any other romantic wants or if this was some kind of idle fantasy, maybe. For a while, it was just the engagement want but now the other romantic wants are coming out to play. I think I mentioned in Josh's update that he never really stopped rolling romantic wants for Elspeth, so we'll see what happens between them now, with Veronica in the picture.
Sophie and Oliver are the new couple I hinted at in my post at N99 yesterday. I teleported him in to see if there was any chemistry with Elspeth but surprise, surprise - she wasn't interested! Sophie though, was very interested and rolled the want to ask him out on a date almost immediately. They're not in love yet, so it's early days at the moment. They have the same attraction score as Connor and Lila (2 bolts, 75 points), so there's a decent grounding there. Not something I was planning but I'm happy Sophie's got a boyfriend again.

Shining light

2012-01-26T09:00:00.007+11:00

Round 33: January 2037 (Summer)

last update/next update

Calvin and Aaron Clarke are both 34 and Amy is 2.
(Lake is 80, Kendal is 61, Josie is 35, Troy is 34, Rebecca is 28, Jude is 5, Willow is 2 and Andrew is 11 months old)

Narrated by Calvin Clarke

I didn’t think it was possible but now that we have Amy, Mum drops over even more than she did before. She used to mostly stick to the weekends but she and Lake often come by in the evenings during the week now too.

I don’t know if anyone besides Aaron or me was as excited as Mum was when Amy was finally placed with us.

Fortunately, I really don’t mind so much. Mum and I have always been close and I was expecting we’d see her around here even more once we became parents.

Amy took a little while to warm up to the extended family but she just adores everybody now.

She seems to enjoy the visits from her grandparents as much as we do.

Mum and Aaron have always really got along, so she knows she’s always welcome here.

Her relationship with Troy’s wife isn’t quite so easy but I have difficulty with Josie myself sometimes.

We normally get along quite well but we’ve had our moments over the years. I just grin and bear it if I see her when she’s in one of her moods.

She can definitely be trying at times but I like seeing Troy and my nephews, so what can I do?

Jude and Andrew are a lot of fun and they’re so much like Troy. Especially Andrew - it’s almost like I’m looking at my brother when I look at him!

The last time the family all got together was this week when we held a party in the park for Amy’s second birthday.

We’ve got a good-sized backyard but it’s still a little sparse for entertaining, so the park seemed like an excellent option for the warm weather we’ve been having. There are so many young kids in the family at the moment and they all had such a great time.

The birthday girl really enjoyed her party as well, being passed around among all her aunties, uncles and grandparents all afternoon.

Willow idolises Amy. Once Amy is doing something, it’s almost a guarantee Willow want to follow seconds later.

It’s really sweet to watch. There’s a bit of a difference in maturity levels now, as they’re 9 months apart but that will seem like nothing at all in a few years.

Aaron and I are just loving parenthood in general. Everything is so new to Amy, which almost makes it seem new to us as well.

It's harder for Aaron and I to make time to spend alone together but it's really been worth it.

I’ve been down on the floor with Amy playing peek-a-boo and singing nursery rhymes. Even when we were in the middle of adopting, I didn't picture myself doing stuff like that.

Over the last several months, I’ve found myself entertained by all sorts of things I would never have imagined I’d ever care about.

She's such a gorgeous, sweet little girl.

Most of the time anyway. One thing Amy isn't shy about is letting us know when she's not happy.

Amy can throw some truly epic tantrums if she’s not attended to right away.

And then at other times, she’s happy to entertain herself in her nursery for a while and will still be quietly playing when we come in to check on her.

We’ve enjoyed raising Amy so much that we’ve decided we want to add to our family sooner rather than later.

Aaron was the one who brought it up, just a couple of weeks ago.

He was ready for me to say I wanted to wait a little bit longer but I realised straight away that I was keen on adopting again too.

We're both thinking we'd like to adopt a baby this time, which would be totally new for us. Neither of us has much experience with infants.

We both knew we had the day off the next day, so we agreed to go down and see Rebecca again and see what she could do for us.

We had to bring Amy with us. Rebecca doesn’t have her office set up for kids but as it turned out, Amy was fascinated by the fountain in the corner anyway.

Unfortunately, Rebecca can’t help us out much at the moment. The adoption agency which placed us with Amy requires a minimum one year wait between placements.

I can see why they’d put that rule in place but it didn’t make it any less disappointing.

It wasn’t a totally wasted trip though. We were able to talk about what the process would be like the second time around, so we’ll be fully prepared for it when we can finally start.

Some parts will be less in-depth this time, seeing Rebecca already collected so much information last time which is still relevant.

But Rebecca will also need to assess how we’re doing with Amy at that point and how she’ll likely react to another child joining the family.

We can start some of the preliminary work now but we won’t be considered candidates for placement until a year has passed. It’s a bit nerve-wracking but the process will at least be a bit more familiar to us this time.

Because we'd like to adopt an infant, we could end up with a longer wait ahead of us this time. Despite that, we left Rebecca’s office feeling very positive about the whole thing.

Amy joined our family last June, so by this June, we hope to be totally ready to join the waiting list. We’re really looking forward to making her a big sister.

Extras:
Just some cute spam that didn't fit into the update!

Willow cracks me up! She makes the funniest faces!

Notes:

Title is from Shining Light by Ash.
Sneak preview of Andrew! You'll see him properly in the February birthdays but wow - he really does look a lot like Troy!
Aaron rolled the "Expand Family by Adoption" ROS this round. I decided they might want an infant this time around because Aaron rolled the "Study Parenting" want, even though he doesn't actually have any infants anywhere in his family right now. So I guess he wants to change that. ;)
I'm planning on doing the same thing I did last time to figure out when Aaron and Calvin will get their baby but I've lowered the odds. It's harder to be placed with an infant than with an older child, so I changed it from 1/4 to 1/5. I don't want it to be too impossible! I won't start rolling until June. It could mean a long wait but they could also get lucky and their number will come up right away. Can't wait to find out - I haven't done the rolls yet!

Lot tour: The Ashton house

2012-01-24T09:00:00.000+11:00

I picked away at this house for weeks, due to a lack of inspiration. It usually only takes me a few days, if that, to do a house. With this one, I haven't really done much landscaping and the balconies are still empty but I'm calling it done, at least for now. Some of you may have already seen this tour at N99.

First storey layout.

Second storey layout. I didn't build this house, by the way. Pascal, Mina, Abigail, Jesse and Nick lived here right up until Abigail got pregnant with the twins. It now looks quite different than it did then though.

This is as close to landscaping as I got with this lot. The rest of it is mostly just a big expanse of grass. But I like it and Patience's favourite colour is yellow, so it works.

The main entrance (there's another that leads directly into the living room that I may or may not remove.

The foyer, with photos hastily slapped onto the walls right before I took this picture! They were looking a bit bare.

I love this little nook by the stairs. I remember I had a chess set here with Abigail and Jesse as well.

A better view of the staircase.

The living room is my favourite room. Rob's favourite colour is grey, so there's plenty of that around too.

This wallpaper is really hard to decorate with. It makes white furniture look cream, though it doesn't seem to have the same effect in pictures as it does in game. Anyway, the wall hangings here are Patience's choice, because she likes vintage things. Rob is a modern/contemporary kind of guy.

I decorated this entire room around those placemats, lol!

Hey, it's a bathroom I don't hate!

This is my only disappointment in this bathroom. Those counters I used are "commercial" and you can't put sinks in them. Which is so dumb! What is the point of limiting us in that way, EA, other than just to be irritating?

This was the whole reason Rob and Patience had to move - little Patrick's nursery!

With Baby #2 on the way, they needed to upsize (and you can see here that these pics are a little old - pre-pre-school for Felicity!).

Patrick is quite happy in his new nursery but he's only six weeks old, so I guess he doesn't care much about decor anyway.

A little study nook in the upstairs hallway. I imagine this will be the computer Felicity and Patrick are allowed to use.

I never know what to put in hallways and this one is huge!

This is the study, mostly used by Rob, predominantly for work.

Felicity was still a toddler when I decorated this house but seeing I wasn't going to play her before she turned to child, I decorated her room for a child. Her favourite colour is black. A bit dramatic for a child but her mother is an actress, after all!

And finally, Rob and Patience's bedroom. I took the opportunity to use that mirror I'd never used before to fill up some wall space! That armchair with the sequinned cushion is a favourite of mine too.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

You say it's your birthday, January 2037

2012-01-22T09:00:00.001+11:00

January 2037 (Summer)

Now that she’s in her second trimester, Matilda’s morning sickness has passed and she was hoping to see out the rest of her pregnancy by not doing much of anything at all.

But unfortunately, husband Miles has been very sick with the flu and Matilda has been spending most of her time taking care of him. He’s on the mend now, so hopefully Matilda will have some more down time between now and Baby Jacobson’s arrival in August.

Maia is now 24 weeks along and has begun her maternity leave. She’s spending her days home alone with 15-month-old daughter Willow and is relishing the bonding time.

It is tiring though, so she’s glad to have her recently retired father Jace there. Maia’s parents live just a couple of blocks away and are always willing to help out.

Maia's older sister Lia, is also pregnant and will soon welcome her fourth child!

Lia’s pregnancy is still going smoothly and she is now 28 weeks along. Baby Nott is due in April and Baby Novak will arrive in May.

Felicity Ashton will turn 4 this year and is very excited to be starting pre-school in February.

Matthew Lane will turn 12 this year and is ready for high school. He knows he'll need to study hard, because he'd like to become mayor one day.

Twin brother Simon is obviously also 12 this year, though not quite as ambitious as his brother. He sees himself eventually having a family but hasn't really thought that far ahead.

Mitchell Carmody is about to start his freshman year at Suffolk University. He'll be majoring in Culinary Arts, with a minor in Literature.

Chris Draper has now graduated from Suffolk University.

He earned a 4.0 GPA and now holds a degree in Art. His study isn't quite over yet, as he's soon to start his Master of Architecture program.

Chris is now living back in Sullivan and is working as a cement mixer on a construction site.

Edward Lachance has also just graduated from Suffolk University.

He now holds a degree in Biology and graduated with a 4.0 GPA.

He and his girlfriend Lucy are happy to finally be living in the same town again, after four years of separation.

Edward is now living in an apartment in Sullivan, with Lucy and Chris. He's right downstairs from his sister Audrey. He'll be working as a Dive Master at Exeter Aquarium.

Finally, Owen Novak will celebrate his 60th birthday this year. If his son Malcolm's girlfriend Hope gets her way, Owen might soon be a grandfather as well.

Notes:

Miles got the flu from stomping on roaches (autonomously, like an idiot). But I was actually afraid I'd lose him there for a while. His recovery points were going down and slipped into the negative, which could have been really bad! But he's all better now, thankfully.
Jace was an autonomous visitor to Maia and Ethan's place and then Maia was an autonomous visitor at Lia and Gordon's. I thought it was cute how that worked out!
Felicity looks exactly how I expected she would. I think she's a lot like Rob.
No surprises with the Lane twins either but I think Simon especially is very cute. Matthew has a real baby face.
Mitchell's imaginary major is Culinary Arts and Literature is what he is in game. I was going to choose Art for him but he rolled up the want to major in Literature or Physics, so I let him pick Literature. Maybe he'll write a cookbook one day. ;) Mitchell doesn't look as much like Jesse as I thought he would. I think he's got most of Jesse's features on Abigail's general face shape, maybe? Face shape can change a lot.

Round 32 Summary

2012-01-20T09:00:00.002+11:00

In which my population continues to grow!

Births: 4 (Theo Nihill, Willow Novak, Andrew Clarke, Patrick Ashton)

Deaths: 0

Engagements: 2 (Dominic and Leslie Lachance, Charlie Benton and Camilla Sitko)

Marriages: 2 (Ethan and Maia Novak, Dominic and Leslie Lachance)

Break-ups: 4 (Chris Draper and Elspeth Romilly, Xavier Moretti and Lauren Carmody, Sam Whitney and Susannah Carmody, Oliver Gentry and Veronica Moretti)

Graduations: 4 (Josh Royce-Nihill, Elspeth Romilly, Edward Lachance, Chris Draper)

New residents: 2 (Leslie Lachance, Amy Clarke)

Total population: 133 (66 male, 67 female)

Babies: 2

Toddlers: 7

Children: 22

Teens: 13

Adults: 68

Elders: 20

Every day should be a holiday

2012-01-19T09:00:00.014+11:00

Round 32: December 2036 (Summer)

last update/next update

Tate Benton is 66 and Zelda is 61.
(James is 61, Kendal is 60, Josie is 34, Troy is 33, Audrey, Jack and Charlie are all 24, Camilla is 23, Everett and Grace are both 6, Jude is 4 and Andrew is 10 months old)

Narrated by Zelda Benton

Tate has had his current car for over 25 years now and for Christmas, I got it in my head that I was going to buy him a new one.

Until I got to the car lot, I’d forgotten that I didn’t actually know anything about cars!

Fortunately, James was there. He’s an old friend of Tate’s from university and so I knew he wouldn’t try to rip me off.

With his help, I picked out a car that we thought would be wonderful for Tate.

I’d already arranged to leave the car in Kendal’s garage until Christmas, so that was a good excuse to meet up for a chat as well.

At this stage in our lives, our talk is mostly centred around our kids and grandkids. I have four and Kendal has three, plus five of Lake’s who she also sees as her grandchildren.

Kendal really has her hands full this Christmas. She and Lake are having the entire family over on Christmas Day and Kendal is planning on cooking for all of them. I don’t know how she does it.

She laughed when I asked her why Lake couldn’t do some of the cooking. She said she wouldn’t trust him to make macaroni and cheese, let alone a Christmas turkey.

Lake is completely and utterly useless in the kitchen, so whether Kendal likes or not, she’ll be doing the cooking.

I got very lucky with Tate. Tate has always done everything in the kitchen and I've never had to learn to cook.

It’s nice to just relax with a coffee while someone else prepares all your meals. Tate really enjoys it as well, so I don’t even need to feel guilty.

He often does a test run of new dishes before Christmas, so he knows exactly what he wants to do when the family comes over on the big day.

Normally, Tate’s enthusiasm for cooking means I get to sleep in on Christmas morning, rather than getting up at the crack of dawn to prepare. But I wanted to surprise Tate with his car this year, so at dawn, I was driving it to our place from Kendal’s.

Tate was so happy with the car though, so it was worth it. He’s looking forward to selling that yellow bomb he’s been driving around for the past couple of decades. If anyone actually wants it, that is!

My gift from Tate was a makeover for my study. It now matches the new colour scheme we have through the rest of the house.

Tate has locked me out of the room for the past few weeks, so I knew he was up to something in there. But the fact that it wasn’t a total surprise didn’t make me any less happy with it. I can’t wait to start working in there again.

We spent a quiet morning together before welcoming everyone over for lunch, the first to arrive being Josie and her family.

This is our youngest grandson Andrew’s first Christmas, so we wanted to make it special for him. Of course, Andrew didn’t even know what was going on but what’s the harm? We can afford it.

I would love Josie to have another baby but Andrew has been a challenge for her and Troy.

He’s gorgeous but lots of trouble so far. Josie thinks they might be done now but they’re leaving their options open, if they change their minds down the track.

Jude couldn’t wait for Everett and Grace to arrive. He was a little young to truly play with them last year but he was excited this time.

We have play equipment for the kids in the backyard but this Christmas, it rained the whole time. They amused themselves with an old arcade game we have upstairs instead.

It wasn’t just the kids who were entertained either. The game once belonged to Jack, when he was much younger. He’d forgotten all about it and was keen to get reacquainted with it.

Poor Audrey was abandoned for a good hour or so in favour of that game!

The lure of gifts somehow got everyone back downstairs. Our family tends to be very generous with gifts, so there were a lot going around.

The children especially get such a kick out of it.

Tate and I enjoy giving gifts to our big kids as well. They can all buy things for themselves now, of course, but it’s always nice to get something you want that you might not be able to justify buying on your own.

Tate’s cooking was delicious as usual.

We don’t have enough space to seat everyone at the same table but no one ever seems too worried about that. We just sit wherever there’s room.

Everett got some food scraps on the couch but he enjoyed himself at least!

After lunch, Charlie asked Tate if he and Camilla could hold their wedding at our house. We knew he was thinking about it but this was the first time he'd officially asked.

Tate said yes right away and tried not to panic when Charlie said he was thinking some time in April!

From talking to Camilla, they’re probably going to need a little bit more time than that anyway. She’s making all the dresses and she won’t be done by April.

I’m not really surprised Charlie would be so oblivious to all that. He’s better than he used to be but he still often has an unrealistic idea of how much time and effort it takes to get things done.

It’s so exciting to have another wedding to plan though and I’m glad I’ve already had my first and last turn at being mother of the bride. Josie was such a nightmare.

One wedding coming up isn’t enough for Tate; he’s already asking Jack when he and Audrey will tie the knot.

Jack is non-committal on that. Charlie and Jack will both get access to their trust funds next year and I'd be surprised if Jack didn't look into buying a house with Audrey. I think they'll wait a while before they get married.

Tate is a traditional sort and he doesn’t love that idea but he knows there’s not much he can do about it.

It’s a bit exhausting thinking about what a big year we have ahead of us but I'm looking into it first.

Notes:

I have no idea what happened to Tate's car! He did indeed have a yellow sedan for years and years but when I loaded his house, it wasn't in the garage. So new car for Christmas!
Jack and Charlie will be 25 next year, so they're getting their $100,000 from their trust funds (Josie got it when she got married at 29, because I hadn't decided how I was going to do it at that point).
It took so long for Tate to get everyone their Christmas turkey. He was traipsing up the stairs to put plates in idiotic places like the desk in Jack's old bedroom (WTF?). It seriously took about three hours in game. It took me forever to figure out it's because the new dining table is too long for that area. They can get around it on all sides but because they're Sims, they do it in really stupid and inefficient ways. So I guess I'll be switching back to a two-tile table. It was still the most fun I've had with a bunch of Sims for Christmas though!
Round summary will go up tomorrow and then we start a brand new round of Sullivan!

Round 33 ROS

2012-01-18T09:00:00.006+11:00

I usually put these up a bit earlier but better late than never. Here are next round's ROS! No deaths this time but I can tell you that I do have one elder death coming up this round, after a long spell of seeming immortality for Sullivan residents. :(

As always, I will be adding links to the ROS as they happen. Please note that if you click these and you're not caught up yet, you will read spoilers. I'll leave it up to you to decide if that will bother you or not.

Extreme Makeover-Home Edition. Sim receives d12 x 500 ($3500) to be used for redecorating ONE ROOM There's a room in this Sim's house I've been thinking of making over anyway, so this will give me the prod I need to do it.
You deserve better! Pursue a relationship with the Sim you're most attracted to (if they'll have you, that is). If that's your spouse, then they're lucky. I'm quite happy about this one, though I'm not yet sure who the Sim they're most attracted to is.
Self-doubt - change aspiration for 1 year - keep or change back
DUI - you should have known better! Pay a $1000 fine and you may not drive a car for 10 days. Thank goodness you didn't hurt anyone, you stupid bastard! A new one to me!
Wow, you're really packing on the pounds these days! Knock yourself down one fitness level, and man, lay off the twinkies!
Expand your family by adoption.

Pizza cutter

2012-01-17T09:00:00.002+11:00

Round 32: November 2036 (Spring)

last update/next update

Miles Jacobson is 33 and Matilda is 30.
(Claudia is 55, Virginia is 46, Amar is 35, Adrienne is 29 and Alice is 10)

Narrated by Matilda Jacobson

It’s hard to believe Miles and I have been married for two and a half years now but it’s true.

It still feels like we just got married. Miles leaves for work at 9 but I always try to keep him in bed with me just a little bit longer in the mornings.

We didn’t live together before the wedding but we were lucky enough that neither of us have any habits the other finds too annoying!

Well, he does get really intense when he watches sports on TV, which I wasn’t expecting. But it’s not a dealbreaker, it’s just a little strange.

We bought this little place right after we got married and moved in straight away. It’s just a starter but I could see us staying here for a long time.

There’s not much space to throw wild parties but it’s perfect for us.

Both of us are past wanting to throw too many wild parties anyway. We lead a pretty quiet life.

Miles gets home a couple of hours before I do and can often be found in our study. He decorated that corner himself and it’s a little haphazard. He likes having a variety of artwork around him for “inspiration”.

I guess it works for him. Miles sometimes gets so absorbed in his drawing that he doesn’t even hear me come in.

I would be annoyed but he’s kind of adorable when he’s working.

We’ve discussed whether Miles would keep going with his art or go and find a “real” job. I make more than three times what he does and he wasn’t feeling so great about that at first.

I talked him out of it, ultimately. I don’t think he’d be happy doing anything else and together, we bring in enough money. It shouldn’t matter who’s bringing in more.

Until he got another job, Adrienne was supporting herself and Amar and that lasted a good few months. They seem to have come out of that okay.

I obviously don’t get to see Adrienne as much as I did when we were living together but she still comes to Sullivan pretty often.

Adrienne is still trying to break out of the stylist thing and come out with her own label. No luck yet but she's optimistic about it.

I’ve promised I’ll do some modelling on the side for her, when she has a collection ready. Adrienne thinks having my face attached to her clothes would be beneficial for sales.

I don’t know about that. I’ve been acting since I graduated and got my big break pretty quickly but it still feels strange to think anyone is all that interested in what I do.

I guess I should get used to it though. I sometimes get people approaching me in the street, who’ve recognised me from various movies I’ve been in.

They’re usually okay but sometimes they can get a little bit creepy. Some of them don’t know when to move on and leave me alone.

Ignoring them seems to do the trick. I don’t want to let the occasional creeper stop me from living my life.

After all, one of the reasons we moved to this area was that it’s so close to plenty of fun things to do. It would be a shame if we couldn’t enjoy them. Our favourite restaurant is literally right next door to our house.

We’re right near the town square as well, which is a very pretty place to just sit together and relax.

Our house is a bit small for entertaining but we do sometimes have Dad and Virginia over, just for a catch-up. There's just enough space for all five of us in our living room.

Alice loves coming over. She’s a really bright kid and she actually enjoys being the only child among adults sometimes.

She’s always really clicked with Miles as well, ever since I introduced him to my family. She feels very grown-up, telling people she has a brother-in-law!

I don’t know if it was hanging out with Alice that made him think of it, or maybe our friend Ethan becoming a dad, but a few months ago, Miles asked me what I thought about us having a baby.

I was shocked, I have to say! I think most couples probably talk about kids before they get married but Miles and I never talked much about starting a family, to be honest.

He caught me off-guard and I told him he was nuts! He wasn’t fazed and he asked me to just think about it.

So I did. Starting a family was something I assumed we’d do eventually but I’d never given much thought to when.

As I thought about it though, I started to warm to the idea of a baby sooner rather than later.

I’m 30, we’re in a good place financially and two and a half years in, I feel like Miles and I have had enough time as a couple that we won’t be missing out on anything if we have a baby now.

We also have that big empty room in the middle of our house that would be perfect for a nursery.

And most importantly, I think I just really want to be a mother and the idea of Miles as a father makes me smile.

I told Miles I wanted to start trying. It's a frightening step but I think we're both as ready as we'll ever be.

It didn’t take long for us to conceive. We’ve been trying for a couple of months and we just found out that I’m pregnant.

Pregnancy is not the most fun thing I’ve ever been through. I’m having a lot of nausea and I’m very sore a lot of the time.

But I’m using it as an excuse to take plenty of long, luxurious bubble baths, so there’s a bright side to everything.

Miles is being awesome. I'm too tired to do much of anything when I get home from work but he hasn't complained about it so far.

It’s very early days in this pregnancy but Miles and I are both so thrilled.

Notes:

Title is from Pizza Cutter by Letters by Cleo.
I've been considering a career change for Miles, because criteria-wise, art doesn't fit him the best. But he's just become an artist in my mind, so I think I'll leave him as he is.
Matilda and her creeper/fan was all autonomous. It would have been funnier if the fan had used that weird "Appreciate.../Worship" option that comes with a high reputation but I thought it was pretty hilarious as is.
Baby Jacobson is due in August 2037. I think this is the third baby I'm waiting on next round and Round 33 hasn't even started yet!
Some of you might have seen me mention this on Twitter a while ago (without naming the Sims involved) but Matilda and Miles both rolled a baby want quite a while ago. Miles rolled it first and then I noticed Matilda had rolled the same want a couple of sessions later. This was very surprising to me, because neither of them are Family Sims, nor do they have Family as their secondary aspiration. I've never had that happen before in Sullivan! I'm curious to see if they'll roll another one once this baby is born.

Speak, see, remember

2012-01-15T09:00:00.001+11:00

Round 32: November 2036 (Spring)

last update/next update

Araminta Romilly is 73, Finn and Victoria are both 35, Declan is 15, Caitlin is 13 and Keira is 5.
(Jesse is 51, Claudia is 35, Louisa is 16, Justin, Xavier and Austin is 15 and Daphne is 5)

Narrated by Declan Romilly

A part-time job is a non-negotiable in our family and Dad definitely made sure enough that Caitlin and I were both aware of this.

He and Mum both think it’s very important that we learn how to handle money and to get experience in the workforce while we’re still young.

Caitlin isn’t too thrilled about the idea and always screws up her nose when the topic is raised. But she has a while before she’s even allowed to get a job anyway.

It doesn’t bother me though, as I was always planning on getting a job. It will look really good on my application to Suffolk, when that time comes.

So now I work at a help line a few afternoons a week after school. It’s for kids and teens, so the people who ring up are mostly around my age.

If I get a call about anything really hardcore, I have to transfer it to my supervisor, Tamara. I had some training before I started but Tamara has actual counselling qualifications.

She says she’s very pleased with how I’m doing though. She keeps prodding me to see if I want a career in social work once I finish college but I don’t think I’d be interested in that. I’ve got other plans.

My friend Austin also works there, in a lower paid position than mine. It’s his job to check people in and send them to the appropriate departments.

I keep telling him he should work a little harder so he can join me but he’s not interested. He’s content to just coast, at school and now at work too.

Grandma was a bit worried about me working at the social services office. It’s in a not-so-great part of town and she was scared something bad would happen to me.

Mum put her mind at ease a bit though, when she told her the aquarium was about a block away and the area the office is in is actually not terribly bad.

There’s not much chance of anything happening to us. When we’re going to work, Austin and I always walk there together.

And on the way home, we don’t even leave the building until Austin’s dad is there. Our family doesn’t have a car, so he drives us both home.

Now that I’m working, the job of entertaining Keira after school mostly falls to Caitlin.

Grandma is always around but she can’t get down on the floor to play with Keira like Caitlin can.

Caitlin doesn’t mind much, because she and Keira get on pretty well.

I think she secretly likes having an excuse to play dollhouse again anyway.

Caitlin and I both begged Mum and Dad for a younger brother or sister for years and Keira has been a lot of fun.

She can definitely be annoying at times but mostly, there’s such a big gap between us that there’s not so much to fight about.

She likes Daphne way better than she likes Caitlin or me though. Whenever Daphne is over, those two are inseparable.

Mum was worried that because of the age gap between us and Keira, that Keira wouldn't have that close sibling relationship she has with Aunt Claudia.

As it turns out though, Keira and Daphne are about as close as a lot of sisters are.

I’m close with my cousins Justin and Xavier like Keira is with Daphne. We’re all in the same grade at school, so along with Austin, we’ve always done everything together.

The owner of the comic book store must be sick of us all by now. We’re in there a lot and we browse more than we ever actually buy.

We all work but none of us make that much money, so we don't have as much to spend on comic books as we'd like.

Lately, Austin’s new girlfriend Violet has been around a lot too.

Violet is okay, I guess. She’s nice enough but I don’t quite get her. She’s always telling these dirty jokes and I’ve never really found that kind of thing all that funny. She also likes fart jokes, which I also don't think are funny.

All that stuff is right up Austin’s alley though and that’s what counts.

He and Violet have been together a couple of months now and I know Austin is pretty happy with her.

Justin has been with Louisa for about two years, which is hard to believe. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long.

Now that Austin and Justin both have girlfriends, it means Xavier and I get ditched occasionally but I don’t mind too much.

I sometimes feel a little strange that I’m the only one of us who’s never had a girlfriend. I do like someone but she’s with somebody else.

It’s not Louisa either, like Austin thinks. It’s Jessica. I never knew Jessica much at all until this year but we often seem to end up studying in the library at the same time lately.

I was a little annoyed by the distraction at first but I like it now.

Jessica is really great to talk to. She’s so smart and very sweet, which surprised me. Her best friend Emma is not really like that at all.

She often talks about her boyfriend, Noah, who’s away at college, so I’m positive that this crush is completely one-sided.

I would love to ask Jessica out sometime but there’s not much I can do about that right now. I'll just have to be satisfied being friends with Jessica and maybe hold onto the distant hope that we might both be single at the same time in the future.

Notes:

Title is from Speak, See, Remember by Pavement.
First of all, don't mind the blue border around all these pics! I normally crop them out with Fast Stone but I don't know if I just forgot or if it glitched this time.
The lot where Declan works is County Social Services, made by the lovely prudencepureheart at N99 as part of last year's Share a Lot project. I couldn't remember if I'd installed the lot yet or not but was so happy to find I had. It fit right into an awkward blank space in my dodgy part of town and was pretty much perfect as is.
Oh my God, I have never had a Sim fart as much as this Violet character does! Declan is revolted by her (the Romilly kids are all neat-freaks - Caitlin is the family slob with a mere 7 neat points, lol) and Austin thinks it's hilarious!
Declan wasn't interested in dating at all until this round but he rolled the want for his first kiss and has been rolling less significant wants (flirt and date wants, mostly) for Jessica. :( She's still quite into Noah though, so any romance between Jessica and Declan is not likely at the moment.

You say it's your birthday, November 2036

2012-01-11T09:00:00.001+11:00

Round 32: November 2036 (Spring)

Rob Ashton is 35 and Patience is 34.

My first pregnancy was very difficult but this one has been like a dream in comparison, so I was hoping the actual birth would go the same way. It wasn't quite a dream, seeing it was every bit as painful as it was with Felicity, but thankfully, it didn’t last nearly as long!

I was worried it was going a little too fast but Dr. Moretti didn’t seem concerned, so I just focused on getting that baby out.

We were holding our healthy baby boy just a few hours later!

We've named him Patrick Blake. Rob and I can’t wait for Felicity to meet her little brother!

Notes:

This was one of those sessions where I was just so desperate to get the pictures done and my game/computer was just not co-operating at all! I was actually going to have Lake bring Felicity in for a visit but I was so over it by the time I got this damn baby born, lol.
So Felicity has a little brother! I was expecting a girl but that almost always means it'll be a boy. ;)
I'm not sure if you can see him all that well in the last picture but Patrick has dark blue eyes and red hair!!! I would put that in flashing lights if I could. ;) Patrick is my second born-in-game redheaded boy.

Walk on

2012-01-10T09:00:00.001+11:00

Round 32: October 2036 (Spring)

last update/next update

Emil Collins is 64 and Anna is 58.
(Rebecca is 27, Malcolm and Nathan are both 26 and Hope is 25)

Narrated by Emil Collins

Since I was forced into retirement a couple of years ago, I’ve had a lot more time on my hands, which I mostly enjoy.

I do get a little bored. I’ve considered looking for work again. I miss my old job sometimes. Or maybe I could be a spy.

I told Anna about that and she told me the SCIA didn’t want a 64-year-old rookie spy.

I’ve spent a lot of time playing video games. Anna bought me a console for my birthday this year. It's been years since I've owned one and I forgot how much fun they are.

I’m sure Anna wishes she’d never bought it for me sometimes. She bought it so I’d have something to do during the day while she was working, but I end up playing it a lot at night too.

If Anna wants attention, I really need to give it to her. She doesn’t let up until I do.

It gets lonely around here without her during the day though, so I can’t say I mind too much.

I thought I’d spend my extra time during the day visiting the kids but it somehow didn’t occur to me that it wouldn’t really work. Hope and Nathan both work regular 9-5 type jobs, so we can only catch up in the evenings and weekends anyway.

Hope has just moved in with her boyfriend Malcolm and Anna and I went to see the house this week.

She also invited Nathan and his girlfriend Rebecca over, so we could all catch up together.

I can tell that Hope isn't very fond of Rebecca, probably due to her altercation with Hope’s best friend Julia last year. They seemed to be able to keep it civil for the duration of our visit though.

Anyway, it’s a nice place but the reason the rent is so cheap is because it's quite isolated. From Hope's front door, all you can see is farms.

Hope insists she’ll be fine. She’s got Malcolm with her and it’s a very safe area.

I’ve come around a lot on Malcolm since he and Hope first got together and I’ve told him to take care of her. I trust that he will.

Malcolm works a lot of nights at the moment though, meaning she’ll be home alone at night. I can’t help but wish she was in an apartment building with an intercom.

Hope and Malcolm are obviously quite serious now. It makes me wonder when I’ll be seeing grandchildren enter the picture.

I hope they wait a few years. I feel old enough without being a grandfather just yet. I’m content to just hand out candy to the neighbourhood kids on Halloween. They know it’s just the two of us living here and that we’re always home on the night.

Daiquiri always seems to be around to help me greet the children. Thank goodness she’s friendly or else they might not ever come back.

I don’t think she has too many years left in her. The poor thing is so old that I don’t think she could really do much damage.

Anna hates Halloween, so she never comes out to see the kids. She spends the evening inside reading and hiding from trick-or-treaters.

She’s always relieved when the doorbell stops ringing and Halloween is over for another year.

Anna just isn’t crazy about other people’s children. She’s not the kind to coo over babies and she never has been. She took a lot of convincing when we decided to start a family and I never did manage to talk her into a third child.

She loves our own children but even so, I think she likes them a lot better now that they’re grown up and can take care of themselves.

Nathan and Hope both take after me, in that they’re very family-oriented. They both see themselves married with children, sooner rather than later (though that obviously depends on Malcolm and Rebecca too).

It’s not something Anna really understands, how eager they both are to settle down and start families.

She’s accepted now that it’s just the way they are and she doesn’t harp on them about the topic any more.

She hasn’t stopped harping on at me about going on a vacation though.

It honestly feels like we don’t talk about anything else a lot of the time.

Anna reads the travel section religiously, looking for different places she’d like to go.

Then that night at dinner, she’ll just casually drop mentions about this resort or that beach. It never ends.

We just can’t afford it though. There’s airfare, accommodation and then plenty of incidental expenses once we get there. We’d burn through all of our savings and we don’t have a lot!

Anna didn’t like hearing that at all.

I did a little research online and found that we still couldn’t afford a holiday but we could probably swing a night or two in a fancy hotel downtown.

So off we went to the Vista. It was actually quite pricey but I don’t think Anna would have even set foot in the other hotel in Exeter. From the pictures I saw online, I’m not even sure I would have walked in. It looked very dingy.

The Vista was a wonderful place though and it thoroughly met Anna’s approval.

It wasn’t quite like going away somewhere but it was surprising how relaxing it was, just having that hotel room to ourselves for the weekend.

I guess it’s not really peak travelling time right now, because the whole hotel, including the restaurant, was almost deserted.

I’m not under any illusion that a weekend downtown has completely satisfied Anna but hopefully by the time she starts up again, we’ll have enough money to go away for real.

Notes:

Title is from Walk On by Neil Young.
Emil rolled the want to get back into the Slacker career or, failing that, Intelligence! Sorry Emil but I'm not bothering with those piddly elder jobs, so you're going to be staying home. Or maybe not. Depends how desperate they get for cash! They have about $5000 in their funds right now.
I tried to add a loveseat and armchair to Hope and Malcolm's place, only to find there is no plain black recolour for the loveseat or armchair. Argh, repository meshes, people! So if you happened to notice the couch is different, that's why.
Yes, Anna has been to the Vista before. I didn't realise that until just this second! But I don't think she'd have shared that little tidbit with Emil anyway, lol!

Personality points that make sense

2012-01-08T09:00:00.013+11:00

At N99 recently, I was talking about my method of assigning personality points to my Sims. Some found it very helpful for their own games, so I decided to take Starr's suggestion and make a dedicated post about it here. Maybe it's something you can use in your own games or maybe you just want to sit back and marvel about just how nerdy I can get!

Way nerdier than this!

Before I started Sullivan, I never paid much attention to Sims' personality points (or much else about my Sims, but that's beside the point). After a generation or so in this hood though, I noticed I was getting a lot of one nice point Sims. I was under the impression that Sims' personalities were based on their parents' personalities and seeing these mean Sims were often produced by two nice parents, it didn't make sense to me.

I did a little digging and found out that the way the game assigns personality points is quite flawed. The game decides on the total number of points first (in CAS, you can only have 25 but you have may have noticed that most of your born-in-game Sims have more than this) and then distributes them among the five traits, always ending with Nice. So by that time, there are often not many points left!

Adrienne thinks this system sucks. Because it does.

To me, this seemed like a fairly rubbish method of assigning personality points, so I devised my own system. It allows me to have Sims with varied personalities that are influenced by the personalities of their parents but still with an element of randomness thrown in. It's based on how personality points were (apparently) assigned in TS1.

To use this method, you'll need Hook's Random Stuff and a way to change your Sims' personality points manually. I use SimPE but you can just as easily do this in game with SimBlender or Insimenator.

For each of the five personality traits, I roll this file, which has four different options. The options are as follows:

Father - if I roll this, I match the baby's points in that trait to whatever the father has.

Mother - if I roll this, I match the baby's points in that trait to whatever the mother has.

Average - if I roll this, I average the mother and father's personality points and give the resulting points to the baby. So a father with two outgoing points and a mother with seven gives me a baby with 4.5 outgoing points. Round up or round down - it's up to you. SimPE lets you enter the points as decimals, so you can do that too (though it would display in game as 4).

Random - if I roll this, I usually just leave the trait with whatever wacky number of points the game has assigned. Or I roll my own random number. Or I just decide how many points I want to give. It's kind of a wild card, if you will.

Just so you can see it for yourselves, here is an example for you. This is Rob's personality:

This is Patience's personality:

And this is the new Baby Ashton's personality:
Seriously, every time a baby is born in my game, there is a better chance than not that it will be born with only one nice point. No matter what the personalities of his/her parents are like.

I'm going to reassign Baby Ashton's traits. I always re-do all five traits, just because I like knowing that everyone's personality has been assigned the same way. If you decide to use this method in your game, you might only want to do it on babies with wacky personalities, or clones, or only on some traits. Up to you.

Anyway, when I rolled Baby Ashton's traits, this is what I got:

Neatness: Random
Outgoing: Father
Active: Average
Playful: Random
Nice: Mother

I'm happy with Baby Ashton's neatness, so I'm leaving it. Outgoing is now 4, over the 10 inherited from Patience and Active is now 2, the average of Rob and Patience's Active points. I'm going to leave Playful as is as well and this baby now has plenty of nice points - 7, just like his/her relatively nice mama! So Baby Ashton is now 7-4-2-7-7, as opposed to 7-10-1-7-1.

This only takes me a couple of minutes per baby to do and I find the results are really worth it. I'm much happier with the personalities my Sims have now. This is hopefully as clear to you as it is to me, but if not, as always please feel free to ask any questions you like!

Airbag

2012-01-07T09:00:00.006+11:00

Round 32: October 2036 (Spring)

last update/next update

Rose and Joanna Draper are both 41, Sylvia is 10 and Will and Levi are both 4.
(Amelia is 47, Wade is 46, Patience is 34 and Alice is 10)

Narrated by Rose Draper

Patience is due in just a couple of weeks now and I’m so excited for her and Rob.

Thank goodness this pregnancy has been relatively smooth-sailing, even with the inevitable stress of moving. I think I would have had the baby sleeping in the living room before I’d move while pregnant!

Patience thinks it was worth it though. She and Rob both earn good money and they were happy to pour it into buying their dream home.

Sylvia thought our house was huge when we moved in but she couldn’t believe the size of Patience’s place. It’s seriously enormous and there’s plenty of room for her to run around torturing her brothers.

Rob and Patience are thrilled with their new place but Patience says she’ll be even happier once they have a baby occupying that nursery. She's pretty keen for the baby to arrive already!

Joanna and I very briefly discussed having another baby. I was still having some urges to add to our family but she was fairly adamant that she was done.

It didn’t take long for me to come around to the idea either. I don’t really want to be pregnant again, or go through the whole adoption or insemination process.

It was worth it, to have the children we have now but I feel done now. Three kids is enough and I can’t really imagine having another baby.

I have time to myself now, for one thing. I can get out in the garden again, at long last. That was almost impossible, with two toddlers wanting attention.

The worst thing about moving here was leaving my vegetable patch behind but now I’ve got another one going in the yard. I can’t wait to have fresh strawberries to pick.

Will and Levi are often outside when I’m out there but they’re never too interested in what I’m doing.

They’re making lots of friends at school and they always seem to have one boy or another over.

None of our kids seem to have Joanna’s hermit tendencies; they’re all extremely social.

Levi and Will are still only pre-schoolers, so they still like hanging out with their parents a lot as well.

We should probably enjoy it while it lasts, if Sylvia is anything to go by.

She’s 10 and we’re both already complete embarrassments to her.

If we go out together as a family, Sylvia is always a few steps behind, pretending she doesn’t have parents.

When she gets sulky like that, we just ignore it and go about our business. I think we’ll probably be in for a really interesting time when Sylvia is a teenager though!

It’s hard to believe Sylvia is so grown-up now though. I sometimes still see her as the little baby we adopted all those years ago.

She is still very close to her friend Alice, who comes over most afternoons after school.

Alice and Sylvia also spend a good chunk of their weekends together as well. They’re both very indoorsy types and they’ve always got along so well.

It’s almost like Alice lives here sometimes. Her parents both work nights, so she ends up joining us for dinner a couple of times a week.

Previously, Alice and Sylvia spent most of their time reading together but they seem to do more gossiping than anything else these days.

I hope it’s all innocent and in good fun but I’m not allowed to know.

If I walk into the room, they both clam up pretty quickly. If I ask what they were talking about, they only ever respond with “nothing”.

I guess Sylvia’s getting close to that age where she doesn’t want us to know every single thing about her. She was so horrified by the prospect of starting high school and having Joanna be around all day.

She was convinced all the other kids would tease her for being the teacher’s daughter and that Joanna’s mere presence would make things hell for her.

Joanna tried reassuring her that plenty of teachers’ kids have been through the school unscathed but Sylvia wasn’t convinced.

As it turns out though, it won’t be an issue anyway. Joanna has decided to quit teaching and won't be at the school by the time Sylvia starts in 2038.

Joanna is a woman who likes to challenge herself and after almost 20 years of teaching, it’s no longer much of a challenge for her.

She’s also feeling a little burnt out after dealing with bratty teenagers for so many years.

I was surprised but not worried. I could support the family on my own for a while, if need be, but I knew Joanna wouldn’t make a decision like this unless she had a plan for what to do next.

And of course, I was right. Joanna wants to put her biology degree to good use and find work in natural science.

It’s the same field her brother works in and when we met up with Amelia and Wade that weekend, he and Joanna talked about little else.

It was a little boring for me and Amelia, I have to admit.

According to Wade though, it sounds like Joanna might have a good chance at getting a job fairly quickly.

I hope he’s right. Joanna is going to see out the school year, so she has a few months to find something.

Wade has promised he’ll keep an eye out for any positions at the lab he works at and recommend Joanna if he sees anything that might suit her.

So there’s that, and Joanna is doing her own job search as well, through more traditional means.

Ideally, she’d like to finish the year, have a couple of weeks’ break and then go right into her new job. Nothing has turned up yet but Joanna is feeling really confident about her chances.

Notes:

Title is from Airbag by Radiohead.
I don't know what Will is doing in that second last picture! It kind of reminded me of this Family Guy clip (and I bet if you've seen that clip before, you know exactly the one I'm talking about).
This was Sylvia's last round as a child but she's already developing some teenage tendencies. She was a real moody little thing this round!
Rose has the skills and job performance to be promoted to Media Magnate but hasn't progressed, for some reason. Abigail is a Media Magnate, so is that a Harder Jobs thing? That Rose won't be promoted while someone else is occupying the top spot? I have three Education Ministers, so it seems like an odd quirk of the mod, if so.
The third Education Minister would be Joanna, who reached it just this round. I decided she's not the kind of woman to rest on her laurels at all though, so I'm letting her go for her LTW, which is to reach the top of the natural science career. I can't remember why I didn't let her do it in the first place. I think I might have just needed a teacher. But anyway, I imagine she'll be able to climb the ladder pretty fast, given her skills are maxed out. ;)

You say it's your birthday, October 2036

2012-01-04T09:00:00.002+11:00

Round 32: October 2036 (Spring)

Finding out they were expecting Baby #4 was quite a surprise for Gordon and a cause for stress for Lia. She will be 40 when this baby is born and has been worried about the effects her age might have on her child. Fortunately, her doctor has assured her that Baby Nott looks very healthy indeed!

Now in her second trimester, Lia can relax just a little bit and look forward to the baby's arrival in April.

Also expecting another baby are Lia's younger sister, Maia and her husband Ethan. Willow has only just turned 1 but she's been such a great baby that Ethan and Maia decided to go for it and start trying for a second child.

They were successful immediately and Willow can now expect to be a big sister in May next year!

And speaking of Willow, this October she celebrates her first birthday!

Like both her parents, Willow loves the great outdoors!

Comparisons:

It feels a little strange to finally be doing one of these for Ethan and Maia!

But here's Ethan as a tot...

...and here's Maia.

And one more time, here's Willow!

Notes:

Some of you probably saw my thread about my glitchy pregnancy at N99, in which I was very coy about who the pregnant Sim was! I can say now that that Sim was Maia. ;)
In case you didn't see the thread or are reading this at some point in the future, Maia is the first Sim in my game to ever get pregnant as a visitor on a residential lot. I had a little bit of trouble getting her pregnancy to advance once I was back on her lot though, so turned to N99 for help. I've fixed her all up now, and she's due in May, one month after Lia.
And in case you're curious, Maia and Ethan conceived this baby in her parents' bed. Ew. I saw them heading for the bed and I idly wondered, "I wonder if they'll try for a baby and if she'll actually get pregnant". And lo, they did and she did!
As for Willow, it's no contest, is it? She looks very much like her mother, except for Maia's very distinctive nose, which she somehow missed out on. I'm wondering if that thing will ever get passed down, as all of Lia's kids missed out on it too. Maybe either Lia or Maia's next baby will get that nose!

Ramble on

2012-01-03T09:00:00.001+11:00

Round 32: September 2036 (Spring)

last update/next update

Abigail Carmody is 53, Jesse is 51, Mitchell is 17 and Austin and Lauren are both 15.
(Louisa is 16 and Declan and Justin are both 15)

Narrated by Austin Carmody

Dad turns 51 this month, so we threw him a family party at home to celebrate.

Our family is pretty big, so the party was huge too. There was barely enough room in our house for all the family members who showed up.

We’re a close family too, so everyone just makes themselves at home.

51 isn’t a particularly memorable birthday but I think Dad just kind of wanted to have a party this year and Mum was happy to oblige.

As well as Dad’s birthday, a lot of the talk was centred around Mitchell heading off to university in January.

We just found out that Mitchell got into Suffolk and my parents are both pretty excited about it. He got a whole ton of scholarships, so Mum and Dad will save a lot of money on his tuition as well.

He’s known for ages that he wants to study culinary arts. It’s kind of weird that Mitchell has been so sure about what he wants to do from the time he was 12.

Mitchell already cooks a lot of meals for us at home. I’m no foodie, but they taste pretty good, so I guess it’s a good path for him.

Mum is really insistent that Lauren and I both go to college as well and she’s already asking us about what we might want to do. She says if she graduated with a kid in tow, we should be able to handle it just fine.

Lauren wants to follow Mum into journalism, so Mum is satisfied there.

Lauren started a blog this year, just to practise her writing and maybe be a step ahead of the others when the time comes.

I don’t really know what I want to do though, or if I want to go to college at all. I’m thinking of graphic design and for that, I would need a degree.

But I also love painting and I think my stuff is good enough for people to want to buy. I don’t need a degree to save up some cash and buy a little gallery or something.

I don’t need a degree to be a photographer either, which is something else I’m considering. I’m still new to photography but I’ve been practising a lot.

Dad is okay with my skipping college, if that’s what I end up doing. He says I already have a better idea what I want to do than he did at my age and that’s a good start.

Mum doesn’t think much of the idea. She’s pushing for me to go and study fine arts, even if I settle on painting or photography.

I don’t even know if I’d be able to get in anyway. It’s not like I’m a star student or anything and I don’t have much motivation to try and improve.

I’m really much more interested in girls right now.

They’re not so interested in me though, which is a problem.

Declan usually thinks it’s pretty funny.

He doesn’t really try flirting with girls, so he just gets to sit back and enjoy my failures.

Declan just has secret crushes on girls, which he then denies.

It’s so obvious to me that he likes Louisa but she’s dating our friend Justin.

I hear a lot of guys talking about Louisa, like she’s really hot, but I don’t see it. She’s pretty but nothing special.

Lately, I’ve been focusing my attention on Violet. She goes to a private school, so I don’t see her in class but I always notice her when I see her around elsewhere.

She seems like kind of a slob but I don’t mind a girl who likes her food.

Our first conversation didn’t go so well. I said something dumb and I think she just thought I was a big weirdo.

I guess she decided to give me another chance though, because she ended up joining my solo darts game outside a little while later.

Once I actually decided to think before I opened my mouth, we got along much better.

I threw in some compliments, just to smooth things over. Flattery might not get me everywhere but I figured it couldn't hurt.

It seemed to work. Just before I had to head home, I asked her out and she gave me her number.

I really like Violet and I hope this thing with her goes somewhere.

Spam:

Just some Catherine spam from the party, because she's cute!

I ended up putting this in her inventory and letting her take it home - she loved that robot! It was once Lauren's.

She was super-sleepy, the poor little thing!

Not too sleepy to check Jack out though!

If she was angling for some attention from Jack, I guess she got it!

Notes:

Title is from Ramble On by Led Zeppelin.
First update of the year! Hope you all enjoyed ringing in the new year and are set for an awesome 2012!
I think I've said before that I want to start celebrating birthdays, when they happen to fall in a convenient place in the schedule for that particular Sim. Jesse's birth month is September, so this works for him. I'll still be doing my age-ups in January though, because doing them month by month seems like a) more work and b) like it has the potential to be confusing in terms of starting primary/high school.
Austin's eventual career is probably going to hinge on whether he gets into college or not. Mitchell is in, as I said and I think Lauren already qualifies as well but Austin is the least motivated.
So Austin finally got to narrate an update. Lauren hasn't narrated either but I feel like we've seen a lot more of her anyway. I guess she's made her presence felt quite strongly!
I will probably delve a bit more into Austin and Violet when I play Declan's house. And I'll see if I can see what Declan's thinking, romance-wise, as well. ;)

Alarmed

2011-12-31T09:00:00.005+11:00

Round 32: August 2036 (Winter)

Connor's last update/Josh's last update/next update

Connor Novak is 23 and Josh Royce-Nihill is 22.
(Max is 49, Lila is 23, Elspeth is 22 and Veronica is 19)

Narrated by Josh Royce-Nihill

My grades at Suffolk were good, but not so good that newspapers were falling all over themselves to try to hire me, so I wasn’t able to get a job in my field right after graduation.

Fortunately, Dad came to the rescue and hired me as a waiter at Front Page. He needed someone to work nights and I was happy to get a paycheck.

I thought I’d hate it but it’s actually not bad. Most of the customers are okay and Dad is laid back and doesn’t mind if I chat to them a little while I’m serving.

I don’t want to do it all my life or anything but a job’s a job. It pays the rent.

Connor pays the other half of the rent and was lucky enough to to get a job within ten minutes of arriving back in Sullivan. I’m kind of jealous.

He really loves his job and he can see himself in that line of work for life.

All I can do is keep looking and continue to work on my writing, and hope someone will take a chance on me. I’ve written a few paid articles for blogs and things, thinking that will look better on a resume than someone who’s done no writing at all.

Living with Connor is definitely different from living at home. Neither of us can really cook, so we’re not eating any better than we did in the dorms.

Connor can’t believe my dad is a chef and I learnt absolutely nothing from him. All I can make is mac and cheese.

Connor and I are living just a couple of streets away from the basketball court, so we head down there together on Monday afternoons. I think we’ve finally seen the last of the snow, so we’ve been able to start playing again.

We both have Mondays off, when everyone else is working. Restaurants are often closed Mondays and Connor has two days off during the week in exchange for working weekends. Life's good.

The only real problem with my current living arrangement is Lila. She’s with Connor now and it’s a little strange, having your roommate dating your ex-girlfriend.

Connor told me about it quite soon after they got together, so it didn’t exactly come as a surprise to me. She's always thrilled to see me.

She really still loathes me, some would say with good reason. It's pretty awkward having her around sometimes.

We’re okay when Connor is there as a buffer, so I hope things can be smoothed over eventually. It’s not like we’re really able to avoid each other forever.

Lila and Connor seem pretty solid and very happy together, so she’s going to be hanging around here a lot.

And I’m still close to Elspeth, who lives with Lila, so I’m over at their place sometimes as well.

Thought I have to say, I really try to avoid that. Elspeth has said that Lila doesn’t mind us hanging out but I’m pretty sure she’s not thrilled about it either, especially at her home.

Nothing is going on between me and Elspeth but a couple of months ago, I did try to make a subtle move on her.

It didn’t go so well.

Elspeth thinks we’re better off staying friends.

I really think we could have something, if she’d give it a chance, but I’m not going to push it. For now, anyway.

I’m not going to just wait around for her though, so I’ve started dating someone else. Her name is Veronica and she’s a sophomore at Suffolk.

We met last year, when I was still living on campus. I was interested straight away but she turned me down more than once. I’m nothing if not persistent. She was dating someone else then but they’ve since broken up. She’d been contemplating ending things for a while and his loss is my gain.

All of her classes this semester are while I’m at work, so our schedules match up surprisingly well. We’ve been seeing each other a few times a week and it’s going pretty well so far.

She gets really mad when I even mention sports but that’s not a huge deal. We don’t need to have everything in common.

We don’t click like I do with Elspeth though and it’s something that comes to mind every now and then when I’m with Veronica.

Elspeth and I have been friends since we were 10 and have been through so much together though. Our relationship didn’t develop overnight, so I’m trying not to think about that in relation to Veronica.

Seeing Veronica only just broke up with Oliver, she’s not ready for anything serious yet. I’m happy to keep things casual for a while too and just see where it goes.

Extras:
Susannah tried to grab Caleb's ass and he was not happy about it!

And she wasn't very happy about the rejection either!

The girl must be getting desperate, hitting on her sister's father-in-law! I'll have to find her a nice boy. ;)

And this would be why I had Veronica break up with Oliver. Josh booty-called her and she was willing to do absolutely everything with him, except woohoo. So given the way her wants looked (none for poor Oliver, plenty of generic ones), I decided that the fact that she was technically still committed to Oliver was the only thing stopping her and I had them break up "off camera". I really like Oliver though, so I'm still hoping one of my other girls takes a liking to him.

Notes:

Title is from Alarmed by Built to Spill.
Josh got a job in journalism literally seconds before I left this house. It pays about $80 more than he was making at Front Page, which is still not great, but he has his foot in the door now. He's doing better than poor Hope. She had the same GPA but is still waiting for a job in natural science.
Veronica and Josh have two bolts, so they're moderately well-matched. But Josh is still holding a massive candle for Elspeth and Veronica doesn't seem into anyone in particular, so we'll see what happens between them.

Over it over again

2011-12-28T09:00:00.004+11:00

Round 32: August 2036 (Winter)

last update/next update

Jace Novak is 79 and Magdalena is 72.
(Gordon is 40, Lia is 39, Maia is 34, Ethan is 30, Annabel and Georgina are both 12, Gabriel is 9, Willow is 10 months old)

Narrated by Jace Novak

I already worked much longer than I ever wanted to, so I finally made the decision to retire. I’m still in good health and seeing I’m getting close to 80 now, I want to enjoy some more leisure time.

I thought we’d seen the last of the snow, so I spent my first few days of retirement tending my garden.

That was all for naught, unfortunately. We got some more heavy snow, so I think I’ll just wait until spring before trying to grow anything else.

Instead, I’ve been spending my days making flower arrangements. It’s one of my favourite things to do.

When I retired, I also turned over the ownership of Rosa Lucida to Maia but I don’t think I’ll ever giving up flower arranging.

Magdalena was a bit worried about me completely retiring, mainly from a financial standpoint. She’s not miserly, but she likes to have more of a nest egg than she thought we’d have if I stopped working.

But we own our house outright and our daughters have been out of the house for many years now (over 20 years, in Lia’s case!); we really don’t have much in the way of expenses. My pension easily covers our needs, with plenty left over as well.

Now Magdalena is talking about retiring herself. She’s going to wait until the new owner gets settled in and then give her notice. It will be very nice when she finally does. It gets a little lonely here during the day.

Watching Willow helps that a lot. I really enjoy looking after her.

Maia is still on maternity leave but now that she’s learning the business, she needs someone to care for Willow a couple of days a week. I am more than happy to take on that role!

It’s been a long time since I’ve been around such a young baby though and it’s sometimes quite the relief when Willow dozes off.

I often feel like a nap myself by that time, so I move Willow to her pram and lie down for a little while.

Maia has really adapted to motherhood, which makes me so happy. Willow sleeps through the night now, which makes things that little bit easier.

Willow’s first birthday is in a couple of months and at that point, Maia will need to go back to work at the events planning firm, which may throw things out of whack again.

Maia isn’t too worried; she says she will hire a manager to take care of the business side of things, so she won’t need to be on site as much.

I guess she could. The store is profitable enough that she could easily afford to. I was too stubborn to hire a manager and I ended up working myself pretty hard!

Even knowing that Maia will probably be very busy soon enough, I still can’t help but wonder when Maia and Ethan will give us another grandchild.

I've hinted but they're not saying much about that topic. They’ve both said they’re considering a second but they haven’t said anything about when.

Magdalena is keen for another grandchild too but she’s being far more restrained about it this time and not nagging Maia about it.

She’s even scolded me for being pushy, which is pretty rich coming from her. She was just as bad as I was before Willow was born!

It’s our poor granddaughter who has to deal with Magdalena’s nosiness these days. Annabel mostly humours Magdalena when she asks her for the millionth time whether she’s got a boyfriend yet.

Poor Georgina though. Magdalena asked her the same question last time we saw the girls and she looked so embarrassed.

I don’t think Magdalena will ask her again. She’s nosy but not cruel.

Gordon has told us the girls won't be allowed to date for a few years yet anyway.

They’re really going to have to keep an eye on Annabel! I can imagine her becoming completely boy-crazy within a year or so, if she’s not already.

I’m relieved Gordon and Lia are being strict with that sort of thing. I don't know if I can take the idea of the twins dating.

I could never stand the thought of some boy trying to get his hands on any of my daughters either. Sometimes I'm still amazed that I ever got over my beef with Gordon.

Gordon and I get along very well these days and have done for years now.

It turns out our parenting philosophies aren’t so different. Now that Annabel and Georgina are in high school, he understands exactly how I felt when he and Lia were dating.

I'm sure it's a relief that Gordon and Lia have a few more years before having to deal with Gabriel dating.

Gabriel is still such a kid that it’s hard to imagine him dating or taking an interest in girls. I guess it’s a product of being the youngest.

Last time they visited, Lia and Gordon told us that come April, Gabriel would no longer be the baby of the family; Lia is 10 weeks pregnant!

I’m sure I don’t have to say how delighted Magdalena and I were to hear that news! This will be our fifth grandchild.

Gordon is thrilled. He always saw himself with four kids and was a little disappointed when Lia wanted to stop at three.

Lia is excited too but she has some reservations as well. The baby wasn’t exactly planned, so it’s really taken her by surprise.

Pregnancy was tough on Lia the first two times and she’s afraid it’s only going to be much harder on her now, almost 10 years since her last baby.

She’s also been reading all sorts of things online about the increased risk of miscarriage for women of “advanced maternal age”. At 39, Lia now falls into that category, so she’s worrying herself sick about it.

There’s not really any telling Lia once she starts fretting about something but Magdalena tries. Lia is very healthy and cautious and has no previous history of miscarriage, so all she can do is hope for a very boring nine months.

Notes:

Title is from Over It Over Again by She & Him.
I had meant for Jace to retire like a hundred times before now and this round, he rolled the want to retire. It was like he was saying "Please! I'm almost 80 and you have me working as a fashion photographer and running a florist!" So I had to give in, lol!
I still haven't transferred the business to Maia officially, because I was too lazy to go through all that tedium of moving Maia in with her parents, and then back in with Ethan last night. But it will be hers soon.
Lia and Gordon conceived this baby in their car outside the Claudette, after their date in their update this round. BC failure! It didn't fit in to the update, seeing Georgina wouldn't have known, so I wrote it in here instead. I'm kind of hoping for a girl who looks like Lia this time.
No baby yet for Ethan and Maia but he has rolled a want for one. I didn't think he'd hold out until Willow's first birthday. That Family secondary is strong!

You say it's your birthday, August 2036

2011-12-25T09:17:00.001+11:00

Round 32: August 2036 (Winter)

Patience Ashton is now in her third trimester and has been keeping her husband Rob busy preparing the nursery for Baby #2!

Moving while pregnant was no picnic and she's relieved that they've finally moved in. Now all she, Rob and Felicity have to do is wait until November, when they'll meet the new member of their family.

Meanwhile, it's Theo Nihill's first birthday!

Theo is a really active little guy and he loves music, just like his dad!

Extras:

Let's do a comparison between Theo and his mum, Olivia.

Here's Theo again.

And here's Olivia!

Notes:

I have this set to post on Christmas Day, though I am writing it 3 days before. So I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas are enjoying the festivities. Or that you did enjoy them, if you're catching up with Sullivan post-Christmas. ;)
I'm still not finished decorating Patience and Rob's place but the whole bottom floor is done, as well as the bathrooms upstairs. They have a heap of space in the yard too, so I want to do something with that.
As for Theo, he's a cutie, right?! He has Olivia's eyes but possibly everything else is Steve's? It's hard to tell without a toddler pic of Steve.
Theo's profile is not done yet. I'll get it done...sometime, lol.

Melt your heart

2011-12-23T09:00:00.002+11:00

Round 32: July 2036 (Winter)

last update/next update

Charlie Benton is 24, Camilla Sitko is 23 and Grace and Everett are both 6.
(Olivia is 39, Susannah is 26 and Zac is 2)

Narrated by Camilla Sitko

Charlie and I put every bit of money we’d saved up into getting this unit but it’s really been worth it.

Ideally, we’d be living in a house but this place is bigger than any house we can currently afford. That should change next year, when Charlie turns 25 and gets access to his trust fund.

But maybe we’ll stay put here for a while anyway. We’re happy and the kids are happy and it’s all we need for now.

I really like our neighbour, Susannah. We both became mothers rather unexpectedly, so we bonded over that to begin with. We get along really well and we're often in and out of each other's units.

It feels strange to be the more experienced mother but I’ve been able to give Susannah the odd tidbit of advice in the time we’ve known each other.

Her son Zac is only two, so Susannah is still dealing with all the toddler stuff, which feels like it was so long ago with Grace and Everett.

Zac is a good kid but it’s just a tough age. Susannah is doing it on her own too, for the most part. Zac stays with his dad a couple of nights a week but it’s mostly on Susannah’s shoulders.

Her ex recently started dating someone and I’m trying to convince Susannah she should get back out there too.

She's a bit daunted by the idea of dating with a kid. She and Zac are a package deal; she needs whoever she's with to love her and her son.

She’s also kind of shy and would be nervous about dating again regardless of the circumstances. I wish I knew someone I could introduce her too. All the men I know are partnered up right now.

We finally got a cat for Grace and Everett this year. They’ve been bugging us for a pet for ages, so we picked Wanda out at a shelter.

The twins adore her and she seems to at least tolerate them.

They’re very good at paying attention to her and making sure she gets fed.

They even clean out the kitty litter. I’m very proud of them.

Charlie is very particular about tidiness, so he has the kids pretty well-trained. I work from 7 to 6 and cleaning is the last thing I want to do when I get home.

I’m now Olivia’s assistant, so I’m earning twice what I did as an intern. I have a more involved role now, along with the pay bump and I’m really enjoying it.

The hours are crazy but it’s worth it. I get such a buzz being backstage at a fashion show. I can’t imagine what I’ll feel like when it’s my own designs the models are wearing.

I was the one who always had the after-school shift when we were living on campus but Charlie works shorter hours than I do now, so he is home with the kids after school more often than I am.

I miss it in some ways. I love hearing all their little stories about school, even if Everett does still tend to embellish his tales a little!

But the kids usually have a ton to tell me when I get home anyway. It is really nice to walk in and have the kids’ homework and dinner ready to eat.

I’m always so ravenous after work. Who wouldn’t be, after 11 hours?

It doesn’t leave a lot of time for romance though. Charlie and I haven’t been on a date in a few months now. We’re usually too exhausted. Once we get the kids to bed, we’re just about ready for bed ourselves.

Last Friday night, I arrived home from work to an unusually quiet house. When the place is that quiet, it usually means the kids are doing something they shouldn’t!

I was worried, until Charlie came explained that Grace and Everett were with his parents and we had the place completely to ourselves.

Charlie’s parents are always offering to take the kids for a night but we rarely take them up on it. The prospect of a whole evening on our own was so exciting though!

Charlie made dinner for us. He does that almost every night but just the two of us sharing a meal doesn’t happen very often.

We even had champagne, because Charlie said it was a “special occasion”.

I started to suspect what Charlie was up to then…

…so I wasn’t totally surprised when I saw the ring box.

But that didn’t make it any less thrilling. When I came home from work, I definitely wasn’t expecting to get engaged after dinner!

Then again, I never expected to still be with Charlie after 8 years or that I would have two children by now.

My life really hasn’t gone the way I imagined it would when we first started dating but I can’t wait to take this next step with Charlie.

Notes:

Title is from Melt Your Heart by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins.
Poor Charlie is now back on the night shift! More money but crappier hours. As for Camilla, I think the hours for the Fashion career are uniformly awful, all the way to the upper levels (Olivia's hours still suck), so she's in this for the long haul now.
But yay, WEDDING! LOL, you guys know I love a wedding. I'm not totally set on the date yet but I'm thinking round about April next year. I will have it set for sure by the time I put up next round's play schedule.
Charlie actually rolled the want to get engaged to Camilla while she was still pregnant. This was amazing to me, because she was still a teen and he was a YA at the time. I've never seen engagement/marriage wants for teen-adult couples, even with the adult wants hack (although I still have to try that independent teen trick). And also, he didn't roll the want while he was on a date with Camilla - he just rolled it out of the blue. I always take that as a special sign, so I figured that Charlie was serious about Camilla from then on. He had a few hiccups along the way but his heart was always in the right place.
I actually had a few extra scenes planned out for this with Camilla and her friends but it was already getting long. ;) I think I'll write one of them into the actual wedding post.

Hypnotize

2011-12-21T09:00:00.002+11:00

Round 32: July 2036 (Winter)

last update/next update

Gordon Nott is 40, Lia is 39, Annabel and Georgina are both 12 and Gabriel is 9.
(Jace is 79, Magdalena is 72, Mitchell is 17 and Brendan and Caitlin are both 13)

Narrated by Georgina Nott

High school has been harder for me than primary school ever was and my grades have dropped a little as a result. My teachers have told me that it’s my oral work that’s letting me down.

Whenever I have to do a talk, I get too nervous and I end up fumbling my words too much. So I’ve been practising in front of the mirror whenever I have a presentation or something for class. Hopefully, that will help.

Annabel has no such concerns.

The only thing she practises in front of the mirror is kissing and flirting.

Mum is always trying to encourage Annabel to take school a bit more seriously. She’s very set on all three of us going to college and Annabel won’t get in unless she has the skills and grades they’re looking for.

Annabel isn’t worried, because she figures she has five years before she even has to think about university.

Annabel and I are 12 now and she’s been trying to convince our parents that we’re old enough to be left at home alone for the night.

It’s not like we’re going to throw a wild party or burn the house down or anything like that. When we get home after school and we’re by ourselves, we usually just do our homework and watch TV.

Gabriel’s not really any trouble either. It’s too cold for him to go out bug hunting right now but he’s happy inside reading. We would be fine at home for a few hours at night.

Our parents, especially Mum, don’t see it that way. They said there needs to be someone older around in case of emergencies.

Dad has promised that in a couple of years, we can stay home on our own on a trial basis.

I still think it’s fun when Mum and Dad go out for the evening though.

They go out on their date nights a few times a month, whenever they can fit it in around Dad’s work.

When they’re out, Grandma and Grandpa come over to watch us. Which is not all bad, I have to admit.

Our grandparents are really cool, for old people.

Mum and Dad always leave us dinner but Grandma always bakes something extra for dessert.

Mum doesn’t make too many cakes and things and Grandma is a great baker, so it’s nice to have a treat when she’s here.

Annabel doesn’t really mind hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa; she just likes seeing how much Mum and Dad will let her do.

We’re not really allowed out much at night but lately, that really hasn’t been a problem. We’ve had some really heavy snow and school hasn’t even been on a lot of the time.

That leaves us plenty of time to hang out with our friends during the day.

I love school but even I have to admit that there’s something special about being out having fun when we’d normally be in class.

We’ve spent many a morning at the playground near our house, with Brendan and Caitlin.

Lunch is always at Cluckin’ Bell, because it’s the only place we can afford.

Even if we could afford some place fancier though, we’d still be eating there. Caitlin and Annabel are both obsessed with Mitchell Carmody, who works there.

Mitchell is cute and everything but he’s also 17. That’s pretty much a guarantee he’s not interested in Caitlin or Annabel.

Annabel thinks she’s in with a chance because he talks to her but I think he’s just a nice guy. Or maybe he just likes the attention. Either way, Mitchell will be away at college by the time Annabel and I are even allowed to date.

Brendan hates it when Annabel gets all swoony over Mitchell. He says it’s because it’s so pointless, because Mitchell’s not into her anyway.

It’s so obvious that he has a crush on Annabel though and he’d rather see her getting all swoony over him.

I know how he feels, because it’s probably the same way I feel when I’m trying to talk to him and he’s too busy looking at Annabel to hear me.

I don’t know Brendan as well as Caitlin and Annabel do but I really like him. He’s cute, of course, but he’s also funny and sweet and smart.

When he can drag his eyes away from Annabel, he's actually a pretty good listener as well.

Usually, I tell Annabel everything but I haven’t told her how I feel about Brendan and I’m not sure if I should.

We worked out months ago that Brendan was pretty into Annabel, so he has definitely come up as a topic of conversation when we’re hanging out without him.

But in all the times we’ve talked about Brendan, Annabel has never said one way or the other whether she’d actually want to date Brendan or not.

I guess it’s selfish of me but I hope she doesn’t. Annabel and I are so close and I don't want a boy to come between us.

Notes:

Title is from Hypnotize by the White Stripes.
So this is the other side of the Brendan thing I was referring to in his update. Georgina likes Brendan, Brendan still likes Annabel and Annabel isn't rolling wants for anyone. There's a lot of heart-farting over Mitchell though. ;) I don't know what will happen with this gang but they're young and have plenty of time to figure it out.
There was so much snow in this play session! I have never had such heavy snowfall in the game - it was insane. I played this family for four days, two of them being school days and both those school days were declared snow days. Which was nice in a way, because it gave me plenty of time to have the twins hang out with Brendan and Caitlin but I also didn't get to improve Georgina's grades at all, which she really wants to do.

Waves of grain

2011-12-18T09:00:00.012+11:00

Round 32: June 2036 (Winter)

last update/next update

James Novak is 61 and Madelyn is 56.
Maia is 34, Aaron and Calvin are both 33, Ethan is 30, Connor and Lila are both 23 and Willow is 8 months old.)

Narrated by James Novak

It’s getting very cold in Sullivan but that hasn’t dampened people’s enthusiasm for wandering around outside at a car lot. Business at Novak Motors is still booming.

I wouldn't mind getting less business from kids who can’t even drive yet but I don’t have the heart to shoo them away. Maybe they’ll remember my lot in a few years, when they get their licenses.

Connor worked at the lot for me a little bit right after graduation but he’s happily working in crime scene investigation right now.

He never had any real interest in sales or business, though he’s helped out the most, out of our sons.

Connor has moved out of Maia and Ethan’s house now and is rooming with his friend Josh. Their apartment is in Exeter, just a couple of blocks away from his girlfriend Lila’s place.

He’s finding finances a lot tougher now, as his rent is a lot higher than what Ethan asked him for. I’m just glad Connor has always been sensible with his money. He might find it hard going but I don’t need to worry about him burning through all of his cash.

Ever since they got together, Connor’s girlfriend Lila has been visiting with him more and more.

I’m actually Lila’s boss, so if I’m ever scrambling for something to talk about, there’s always work.

Lila talks about that all the time anyway. I’m sure she’s after my job one day but I’ll probably retire in a few years anyway, so I’m not so concerned about that.

Madelyn and Lila are very different women; Lila is all about her career and no one would ever describe Madelyn that way.

Somehow, they still manage to get along well. Madelyn has always been good at “bridging the gap” with people she doesn’t have much in common with.

Madelyn has never had to do much of that with Maia though. They clicked right away.

They have bonded even more since Maia and Ethan gave us our first grandchild, Willow. Madelyn has loved being able to give Maia advice and commiserate about the tougher parts of parenthood.

Maia is a lot older than Madelyn was when we had Aaron but they felt similarly unprepared beforehand.

I have to admit that when I first heard Ethan and Maia had named my granddaughter, Willow, I thought it was a little silly.

Now that the name is attached to an actual little person though, I hardly think about it at all any more.

Willow is such a pretty baby and you can tell how proud Ethan is to finally be a father.

Madelyn has already asked him when we’ll be seeing #2. She just can’t help herself sometimes.

Ethan says they’re not quite ready to even talk about that yet! Willow’s first birthday is in October and they’re not going to consider expanding the family until then.

I think they’re just really enjoying Willow right now, as we all are.

It’s fun for me and Madelyn to have a girl in the family, after raising three boys.

Aaron and Calvin were approved to adopt last September and ever since then, we’ve been awaiting news of our next grandchild. It’s felt like such an incredibly long wait and we’ve really had no way of knowing how long the wait would be.

Of course, it’s been even worse for Aaron and Calvin but they’ve both stayed positive about it. They’ve had the nursery since before they were even approved, so all they’ve had to do is wait.

This month though, Aaron and Calvin finally got the phone call they’d been waiting for and found out they’d been matched with a child.

They came over to tell us about it that night and there was plenty of celebration going on.

We found out they would be adopting a girl. She’s a little older than Willow, so she’ll have a cousin close in age.

We could not have been more thrilled for them and couldn’t wait to meet our new granddaughter.

Aaron and Calvin took custody of Amy this week and Madelyn and I went over to meet her.

Amy was a little bit shy at first and buried her face in Aaron’s shoulder when she saw us.

Curiosity got the better of her after a while though and she just had to check us out.

Madelyn got some giggles out of her pretty quickly.

All in all, it only took Amy a little while to warm up to us.

It was love at first sight with the cat though. Poor Ulysses.

She is bonding with Aaron and Calvin so well already.

It’s really wonderful to see. Aaron and Calvin are building a strong family unit with Amy and they’re going to be fantastic parents.

Extras:
Just some Amy-spam, because she's so cute!

Super-excited for nap time!

She's mobile, which I'm sure is just thrilling for Ulysses!

I always put toddlers up on a dining table or counter to get good close-ups and Amy decided to grin at her new dad while she was up there.

Amy has been in the adoption pool for as long as any of the other adopted kids in my game (it's kind of funny to look at her relationship panel and see that she already knows Susannah, Matilda and even her uncle Connor!), so she's obviously not biologically related to anyone in Sullivan. But she does bear a passing resemblance to Madelyn, I think. That's pretty cool - she even has the grey eyes.

Notes:

Title is from Waves of Grain by Two Gallants.
I swear, if you guys have any Sims with a decent amount of cash for start-up and you want to make them really rich, a car lot is the way to go! James has all 5 wholesale business rewards, so that really saves him money too. He only has about six cars on the whole lot and he sold them all in about 3 hours - brought in about $30,000. James and Madelyn would have had a ton more money if he'd started the business when he was a much younger man.
I used the same method to decide when Aaron and Calvin would get to adopt that I used with Rose and Joanna's artificial insemination - a yes/no roll every game month, with a yes indicating the guys' lucky month. James and Madelyn were originally scheduled for May, so I just moved them forward one month so I could write the adoption into their update. I was quite happy with how the timing worked out!
I cannot even tell you how long I've been waiting to write this post! I let Aaron and Calvin call the Adoption Service about three days before I played the rest of the update. So I just had all these cute pics of Amy hanging around and I couldn't show them, because I didn't want to spoil it! But anyway, Amy's here now, so I can spam away. :D
Amy is a Capricorn, so I gave her a January birthday, which makes her 10 months older than Willow. They'll be in the same class at school, when they're ready to start.
I am officially on school holidays now, so updates should hopefully continue to be quite frequent. I'm not going away for Christmas, so there shouldn't be any major slowdown for the holiday either. I'm so looking forward to my six weeks of mostly uninterrupted Simming time!

The meantime

2011-12-15T09:00:00.006+11:00

Round 32: May 2036 (Autumn)

last update/next update

David Sitko is 54 and Kirstin is 52.

(Amar is 35, Malcolm is 26, Connor, Lila and Camilla are all 23, Adelaide is 18 and Grace and Everett are both 6)

Narrated by David Sitko

After months of convincing, I finally managed to talk Kirstin into taking a holiday.

She had her usual objections, like crowds (not in May, when school is still in) and money (which we’re not exactly short on).

Eventually, Kirstin’s own desire for a little break won out and we were on our way.

We decided on the mountains at Three Lakes. Our last trip, to Takemizu Village, was a bit of a disaster and we went to Cape Elizabeth for our honeymoon, so we were up for something different this time.

We had a fantastic time. We did a lot of swimming in our hotel’s heated pool.

There were huge windows right up against it and the view was wonderful.

We both treated ourselves to a couple of massages. Every time Kirstin goes, the masseuse tells her how tense she is, so I think it really does her good especially.

I don’t know how she can stand sitting in those saunas though. That’s definitely not my thing!

A far more appealing prospect was the hot tub on the balcony of our hotel room. It was almost like we were up in the trees.

We hardly even noticed the cold - and it really was cold up in Three Lakes! It was enough to make me wish we had room in our yard for our own hot tub.

We did venture out to see the sights as well as enjoying all the luxuries at our hotel, of course. Kirstin really loved axe throwing.

I decided it was best I stay out of the way!

Kirstin didn’t enjoy the nature trail nearly so much, coming back with a case of poison ivy.

This time though, that was our only hiccup. The trip was pretty amazing, otherwise.

I was sorry to have to leave. I’ve already told Kirstin that I don’t want to wait another 20 years for our next trip. We both work too hard for that.

My job is a very demanding one, especially at this time of the year.

We’re heading into winter and every day there are more patients coming in with stomach bugs, coughs, colds and the flu.

On top of my patients, I also have to oversee the staff and do all the hiring for the hospital.

Malcolm, our newest resident, helped me out with my latest hiring decision by putting me onto his sister’s boyfriend, Amar.

We’re at the point where we need a photographer on staff to take pictures for promotional material and media releases and that will now be Amar’s role. A lot of new parents have indicated that they would be interested in having newborn photos taken at the hospital too, so he'll handle all that as well.

I don’t know how long Amar will stick around but he was very keen to get the position. I just doubt newborn photography or hospital press releases are particular passions of his.

Kirstin finally only has one job, like a normal person. She finished her term as governor over a year ago and she has passed the diner onto Camilla.

Kirstin really couldn’t wait to get rid of that place. She was mostly the owner in name only, as the manager did just about everything but Kirstin still saw it as a burden.

Until she finishes her internship in a couple of months, Camilla will probably be similarly hands-off with the diner, much to Grace’s disappointment.

Gracie seemed to have the idea that Camilla was going to let her work there and cook for everyone. Camilla had told her that but she meant that it would happen when Grace is much, much older. I guess we can blame her other grandpa for her cooking obsession - Tate encourages it all!
It’s such a highlight when Grace and Everett come over. They’re both such characters, my grandchildren. Not that I’m in any rush for more grandkids any time soon. I wasn't expecting to have any at the age I am now, let alone two six-year-olds!

Of our daughters, Lila is the most like Kirstin, so I think she’ll want to wait a while before she has kids anyway.

Lila talks a lot about her job but she doesn’t talk about children except in a “some day in the very distant future” sort of way.

She and Connor seem to be on the same page with that, fortunately. Kirstin and I weren’t and although we obviously figured it out, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t cause any tension early in our marriage.

I think Connor is an excellent match for Lila. She used to talk about him a lot when she was in college but I never imagined they’d get together. Now that they are though, they seem to make a lot of sense.

I like Connor but Kirstin adores him! Connor is very sure of himself and of where he wants to go in life and Kirstin admires that, especially in someone so young.

I wish Adelaide would spend some time around Connor and Lila. Maybe some of their ambition would rub off on her!

Adelaide has ideas of what she wants to do after college but none are particularly realistic. I don’t think “follow rock musician boyfriend around on tour” is a viable career option.

I do worry about her but I’m hoping that now that she’s picked political science as her major, something in one of her classes might spark an interest in her and she’ll come up with a better plan for her future.

Kirstin isn’t as optimistic and she and Adelaide have really been butting heads as a result. Kirstin tried to approach her calmly but it really didn’t go well.

Adelaide’s grades for her first semester have been lacklustre to say the least and last time Adelaide visited, Kirstin really got on her back about it.

Realistically, we were never expecting Adelaide to get stellar grades. School was always tough for her and it just seems to follow that university will be even tougher.

We can’t force her to study; we just have to hope she figures out for herself that she’s not going to be successful unless she really starts putting some effort in.

Notes:

Title is from The Meantime by Phantom Planet.
I should make an effort to do family holidays, when the parents roll the want but my Sims usually end up waiting until all the kids are out of the house anyway!
So this is Amar's new job. The next level of the custom photography career I use is Medical Photographer, so that's what he's doing now. I have a friend who takes newborn pictures in a hospital, so I'm combining her job with a little extra, seeing I don't have that many babies born around here!
The feeling is mutual between Kirstin and Connor! She had the want to be friends with him when I loaded the lot and when Connor and Lila came to visit, he was very keen to talk to Kirstin (and then once he fulfilled that, he was all about Lila again. Aww!).
I'm still feeling bad for poor Adelaide. She's such a black sheep in this family. Both parents with highly accomplished careers, sisters both graduated with honours (one with two kids in tow). I really hope she gets serious about school and does better than anyone is expecting.

Red rain

2011-12-13T09:00:00.002+11:00

Round 32: May 2036 (Autumn)

last update/next update

Hope Collins and Julia Gray are both 25.
(Anna is 58, Malcolm and Sam are both 26)

Narrated by Hope Collins

Rather than wasting my degree working at H&M, I’m now wasting my degree working at the Casbah Cafe. It’s not an awful job but it’s not exactly mentally stimulating.

The pay is definitely not worth it. I have nothing saved, because it all goes towards rent and other essential expenses.

Apparently, I should just be happy that it pays more than H&M, according to my mother.

She still doesn’t really get why I’m so demotivated that I can’t get a job in my field.

But then, she didn’t get a real job until she was in her 40s, so I guess she wouldn’t understand. We have different priorities.

Which doesn’t mean I don’t find her completely exasperating at times.

The good news is that I won't be making coffees any more. On a whim, I applied for a job as a lobbyist for an environmental organisation and they hired me! When I was a teenager, I used to spend a lot of time at town hall, trying to get someone to listen to me about various issues, so I guess I’ll be doing that again. Only in a more official, and hopefully more effective, capacity.

I’m so excited. My pay will finally be equal to Julia’s - she was making about 5 times more than me at the high school!

She keeps saying I could work there too, maybe as a substitute.

Thanks but no thanks. I don’t know how Julia can stand being around teenagers all day.

Somehow, she does though. Julia is really happy at the moment.

That’s not only due to work though. Julia has been seeing a guy for the past month or so and she really likes him.

I was very surprised when she told me the guy was Sam, my cousin Susannah’s ex-boyfriend.

Sam and Julia met months ago, when Sam was looking around for a place to live. He liked the look of our building, so he came to inspect it.

It turned out to be too expensive for him but it wasn’t a wasted visit, because he ended up running into Julia and they hit it off right away.

Julia liked him right away but Sam was a bit apprehensive. He’d only split up with Susannah about a month before and he didn’t want to go jumping into anything so soon, especially with a kid to consider.

So they kept hanging out, as friends. Lots of coffee non-dates and the like.

After several months of that, it developed into something more.

Sam has been taking Julia out a few times a week lately and from what she’s been saying, things are going well.

They’re taking it slow for now. Julia is really keen but she’s a little wary about getting involved too quickly because of Zac, Sam’s son.

But it looks good for them. Julia’s feeling pretty optimistic about Sam.

I’m just relieved that something is happening on the romantic front for her. Single Julia makes a seriously miserable roommate. She's so dramatic; was sure she was going to die alone after she broke up with Nathan.

I feel a little bit less like I’m leaving Julia behind when I go out with Malcolm now. Which is unfortunately not as often as I’d like.

Malcolm is a resident and he’s working really hard at the moment. They give the worst shifts to the new doctors, apparently and right now, that’s Malcolm.

Before he finished med school, I was hoping he might propose after graduation but I don’t know if he’s even thought about marriage lately. I have to admit that I’m a little disappointed he hasn’t brought it up at all.

So Malcolm and I aren’t engaged but he has been thinking about us and our future, at least. He’s asked me to move in with him!

It sounds like he’s got it all planned out. He’s been on his own since Adrienne moved in with Amar, so we’ll live in his current place. It has everything already, so there's nothing we need to buy unless we really want to.

He’s really excited about it. He's even talking about us buying in a few years, if we can swing it.

I still want us to get married but I’m incredibly excited about this step too. I feel like we’re definitely heading in the right direction now.

Julia was still out with Sam when I got home, so I didn’t get to tell her about our plans until the next morning.

She was okay with it - she can afford the rent on her own now - but she’s a little sad. She’s going to miss being roommates.

Despite how happy I am for things to be progressing with Malcolm, I’m going to miss being roommates too. We've been living together since we graduated and the time has flown by so fast.

Malcolm will have to get used to having Julia around, because I’m planning on inviting her and Sam to our place once I settle in and plenty more after that!

Notes:

Title is from Red Rain by White Stripes.
I still want Hope to work in Natural Science but this Politics job will be something to tide her over until she can. It pays much, much better than the coffee shop, so that's something!
Julia first started showing an interest in Sam a little while ago, maybe a couple of game months after he and Susannah broke up. I saw her trying to flirt with him on a community lot and he declined. I checked their chemistry, saw they had two bolts and made a note to keep an eye on them when I played Hope and Julia. When I loaded up this lot and Julia's all about Sam - she wants to ask him out on a date. I teleported Sam in and he didn't have any wants for Julia but after they talked for a little bit, he wanted to ask her on a date too. So I guess Sam wasn't quite ready to move on from Susannah when Julia first approached him but he's ready now.
As crazy as Julia has been in the past, I'm hoping this works out with Sam. She's Knowledge/Family and as such, is fairly keen for a family of her own. Until something sparked between her and Sam, I wasn't sure if I would find anyone for her. I always prefer to match up my Sims with my regular playables or my playable NPCs, so if this lasts, I'll be happy.
Next time we see Hope, she'll be living at Malcolm's place. He is not Julia's biggest fan but he's been with Hope for long enough to know that as long as they're together, Julia will be around. ;) I don't think he's ready for marriage just yet (though Hope has been ready since she graduated college!) but we'll see how he feels about it next round.

You say it's your birthday, May 2036

2011-12-12T09:00:00.000+11:00

Round 32: May 2036 (Autumn)

Patience is now 16 weeks pregnant and she and her husband Rob are excited (and a little nervous) about today's ultrasound.

Dr. Moretti tells them they have nothing to worry about. Baby Ashton is developing just as he/she should be and looks to be very healthy!

What a huge relief for the Ashtons! The baby is due in November 2036.

Kids, April 2036

2011-12-10T09:00:00.005+11:00

Round 32: April 2036 (Autumn)

Principal: Tatiana Lachance
Teachers: Pamela Gray, Finn Romilly
Students: Matthew and Simon Lane are both 11, Sylvia Draper, Alice Jacobson and Aurora and Bianca Moretti are all 10, Gabriel Nott, Ruby Lane and Ramona Nihill are all 9, Marcus and Charlotte Lane are both 7, Jacinta Nihill and Everett and Grace Benton are all 6, Michael Gottlieb, Keira Romilly, Thomas Moretti, Daphne Kirby, Elmer Miguel and Felix Lane are all 5 and Will and Levi Draper, Ryan Moretti and Jude Clarke are all 4.

Narrated by Finn Romilly

This year, we have our highest enrollment ever at Sullivan Primary.

We have 24 students, so things are always very lively around here.

I was a bit worried about Keira being a little fish in such a big pond but she’s in kindergarten now and she seems to have adapted very well to school. She’s had her cousin Daphne with her all the way, so that’s made it easier for her.

She’s the most shy out of our three kids but she’d made some new friends at school as well, which is fantastic.

Due to our very large enrollment, Pamela's class consists of the pre-school and kindergarten children combined.

The kids always seem to adore Pamela, so she’s the perfect first teacher for most of them. None of them were complaining about having her two years in a row.

I have a very diverse class, as usual. Ruby came to my class last year and she didn’t waste any time making herself known.

She’s the kind of kid you need to keep a close eye on. She’s a little bit of a schemer and she knows which kids are most easily influenced.

Ruby certainly keeps my job interesting, that's for sure.

Aurora and Bianca are two of the more well-behaved students. They’ll be here at the primary school for one more year after this one and I think I’ll miss teaching them. I guess I’m a bit biased, being that they’re my nieces, but they really are sweet girls.

I know my students would love to spend as much time colouring in and playing as the little kids do but there’s just not enough time for that, plus all the curriculum work we have to do.

Most of them just get on with it, because they know there’s no point arguing. Then there’s Alice, who will not focus on anything, unless it's science.

Whenever she gets bored with English, it’s never long before she comes up the front and starts her daily “why do I have to do this stuff?” plea.

Alice is extremely bright; she just finds it hard to motivate herself unless she’s already interested. With some prodding from me, she can produce some very good work.

Then there are kids like Sylvia, who try to keep reading under their desks after the class has moved on to the next lesson.

One thing where I can always guarantee all the kids’ full participation is the new buddies program.

We usually run it in Pamela’s room and it’s a good opportunity for the youngest kids in the school to get to know the older ones, almost like mentors.

My kids love it as much as the younger ones. They get the chance to play, something we don’t get to do a lot of normally.

And for those who are the babies of their families at home, I think they enjoy having someone look up to them for a change.

It’s been generally positive for the school. I see the older kids voluntarily sitting with their “buddies” at lunch sometimes.

Some kids still have some things to learn. I saw Ruby pushing in in front of Will the other day, which is obviously not something we want to encourage.

Tatiana has the smallest class this year - just five kids.

In the next couple of years, her students will move on to my class so I try to keep up to date with who’s who. Fortunately, most of the kids are quite nice, according to Tatiana.

I’m a little terrified at the prospect of getting two more Lane children in my class next year. There will be Marcus, Ruby’s little brother.

And Charlotte, Ruby’s cousin. It’s always concerning when a kid’s teacher tells you she has a child seated and facing away from the other kids and she still has to hover over her to make sure the work gets done!

Still, I like a challenge, so I’m looking forward to getting to know these kids as well.

Notes:

Last round's primary school update was so heavily posed that I ended up doing a more gameplay-oriented post this time. Even the buddies program was prompted by me being unable to keep the big kids out of the pre-school room!
Buddies is something else I stole from my real life job. I've never worked in a school without a buddies program. It's generally school-wide, rather than just the oldest and youngest kids. Each class has a buddy class and the kids in the classes are paired up "buddies". The classes get together once a week for combined activities and all the kids tend to enjoy it.
Next round, enrollment at the primary school will go down to 22 and thank goodness for that! This was the first time I had to add extra student tokens to the lot so I could get everybody enrolled. 24 kids is insane!