Thursday 15 October 2009

Forever

Round 21: Autumn 2014
Charlton and Aphrodite Nihill are both 69, James Novak is 39, Madelyn is 34, Aaron is 11 and Ethan is 8.
(Zelda is 39 and Troy is 11)

Narrated by Madelyn Novak

Zelda finally had a couple of hours away from her kids to come and see me. Despite how busy she is these days (after an adoption and a surprise pregnancy), she just loves having a big family.


She's really got me thinking now! I never really pictured myself as having a whole tribe of children but the more I think about it, the more I think I might want to adopt a third. I just don't know what James will think of that, seeing we had agreed to stop at two children.

I figured it couldn't hurt to talk it over. James likes me to listen to him practising his presentations for work, so I waited for him to finish before I brought it up.

I told him how I still felt like there was another member of our family out there somewhere and that I was happy now but that I thought another baby would make our family complete.

James was surprised and not quite as enthusiastic about the idea of adoption as I'd hoped. He'd been banking on the fact that we were done with babies and here I was proposing another one. James really didn't want to go through the whole nappies and sleepless nights thing again.

So we talked it over a little more and came to a compromise. We'd apply for approval to adopt but only for a child aged two or older. A small part of me still wants to adopt an infant but I'm so excited to be expanding our family that I'm not even focusing on that right now.

We started getting everything ready straight away, which included putting in some play equipment outside. Our backyard had been long neglected and the boys had been pestering us for something like this for a while, so even if we don't get approved, we've made Aaron and Ethan very happy!

I hope it'll encourage Ethan to invite some of his friends from school home with him. He's been playing by himself a lot lately.

Aaron is growing up and although he's still nice to his brother, I guess it's not cool to be hanging out with "little kids" any more.

Aaron has his friends over all the time, usually one of the Clarke twins. They never seem very keen for Ethan to tag along with them.

My parents are enjoying their retirement, especially Mum. I never thought she'd be content to stay at home all day but she's loving it!

She's even transferred ownership of Lost Generation over to James - she says she's too old to hang out with a bunch of teenagers all night!

Lost Generation does a roaring business but James isn't sure it's quite the right avenue for him.

The place seems to get dirty faster than it should and James feels like he's constantly cleaning the place.

Then there are the kids. Most of them are nice and are just there to have some fun...

Then there are the nuisance kids - those who are just there to make trouble or who won't take no for an answer. James wants to keep Mum's business going, but not at the cost of his sanity and he's not sure he wants to deal with this sort of thing day in and day out. If he can find a good buyer, he might sell up and start his own business instead.

Notes:
  • Madelyn drew the "Adopt a Child" ROS this round. The child will be arriving in Autumn 2015. James and Madelyn have to be prepared for any age child (except a baby) who needs them purely because I haven't decided what age child I want them to have yet. :P
  • I will probably sell Lost Generation back to the community. I don't know why so many people say they enjoy running venues because I find them a complete bore. There's not really much for the owner to do, which doesn't make for a very exciting play session. Also, banning everyone but teens from the lot worked better when it was a straight community lot. I get adults sneaking in all the time now and still haven't really found a good solution for it. Visitor Controller works but it means I need to have teen employees, which I don't want, because it zaps away adult employees. So Lost Generation will go back to the way it originally was, and be an unowned community lot.

8 comments:

  1. Adopting! That will be fun! Love the little playground set up. Bummer on the lot being sold back to the community. I think some lots are funner to play. It sounds like the one would be a bit complicated to own though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had thought about making some of my sims own the Generation X (Wellington's teen hangout) but now I don't think I will. I hadn't thought about the Visitor Controller zapping off the employees!

    Yay, adoption! I was wondering who would get that ROS. I think it suits this family very well since their biological kids are already quite "old".

    ReplyDelete
  3. I feel the same way with businesses. I had all the expansion packs and then decided to finally buy open for business. I have noticed that I rather my sims own a home business rather than a business on another lot. Right now out of my numerous sims only three sims own a business and one of them might put it up for sale. glad to see im not the only one bored with businesses.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm just the opposite, I hate home businesses. I hate that if you buy clothes or groceries or other things that aren't directly related to the business and you have the money for it that the game still subtracts it from your business total. My sims were always in the red! Can't wait to see their new family member!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I hate home businesses too and for the same reasons! I wish they would have made it so that the business finances are only affected when the business is open.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for reading, everyone!

    I don't hate businesses - far from it! I love running businesses but this particular kind of business isn't working for me. There's just nothing for the owner to do on a venue-type business. I'm absolutely stumped as to why I hear so many people saying the venues are their favourite kinds of businesses. Give me a bustling shop or restaurant any day!

    I am definitely with those of you who hate home businesses though! The finance side of things was only one reason. I mostly just found it too difficult to balance home and work. I'd have Mum and Dad running the shop and then the kids would come home from school, they'd need to do their homework, they'd bring friends with them and then meanwhile, you've got customers throwing their bags down on the floor and complaining about mess. Gah, no thanks!

    I wasn't particularly thrilled with this ROS when I rolled it but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense for James and Madelyn. Adoption just seems to suit them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have a hard time with these venue type lots too. I tried to run a skating rink and pool hall in my old hood, but it was boring and it's so hard to make money with a venue business. So now I just leave those kinds of lots as belonging to the community.

    I can't wait to see the new addition to their family!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah, that's what I'll be doing from now on. It's so hard to build up business rankings with a venue! Other people make it sound as if it just climbs like crazy but I haven't find that to be true at all. No more venue businesses for me! I think Caterina's gym will probably end up being sold back to the community as well - not sure yet.

    ReplyDelete