Wednesday 7 July 2010

Jewels and bullets

Round 27: Winter 2026
last update/next update

Steve Rider is 31 and Olivia Nihill is 29.
(Julian is 76, Caterina is 71, Ione is 30 and Lia is 29)

Narrated by Olivia Nihill

About a week ago, Mum and Julian came over for dinner, which isn't unusual. Mum is over here a lot and when she got together with Julian, she started to bring him with her sometimes.


This time though, they told us they had some news they wanted to share and I was pretty sure I knew what it was.

I was right. They're getting married. They're not announcing the news to anyone except us kids until Steve and I get married. They're not even wearing rings. Mum doesn't want to overshadow me on "my big day".

I'm not really worried about that. I'm not sure how to feel about this news. I like Julian and I am happy for Mum. But I still miss Dad a lot and the wedding has brought a lot of it up again. I'm glad he was able to meet Steve before he died but I wish he could have been here to see us get married.

I'm trying to be okay with this. I'm glad Mum told us well before the fact. It'll give me some time to get used to the idea.

As much as I tried to hide it, Mum could tell I was a little bothered by her news and wanted to talk about it, to see if I was okay.

I will be. I think, with time, I'll grow accustomed to the idea of Mum being married to someone else. It was just a surprise, I guess.

Mum is being really understanding about it. She even offered to not bring Julian to the wedding but I don't want her to do that. It's a family event and he's going to be part of the family, so he should be there.

Steve and I are deep in the midst of preparations for our wedding this spring. I don't think I've ever sewn so much in my life!

Steve says he thinks I'm working too hard. He's worried I'll be disappointed if not everything goes perfectly on the day.

It's not that. Nothing is ever perfect and our wedding to be any different. But I'd be annoyed with myself if I didn't at least try to make everything perfect.

Anyway, I would have been finishing with the sewing ages ago but then Ione got pregnant and I had to wait for her to give birth before I could finish her dress.

Thankfully, I got Ione's dress done pretty quickly after she gave birth. She snapped right back to her pre-pregnancy figure, which is amazing. I hope I'm that lucky!

I have really fertile friends, apparently! Now Lia's going to be in her third trimester by the time the wedding rolls around, so I won't be able to finish her dress until much closer to the date. I went over to take measurements for Lia the other day (the parts that aren't as likely to grow!) and was reminded of why I gave up getting her to model for me.

She's so difficult! "Don't make it too short", "make sure my boobs aren't showing too much". I've already told her she has nothing to worry about and she's seen the dress. She's freaking out over nothing.

She is really excited about the wedding though, maybe as excited as I am! Lia makes a sport out of pestering her single friends about when they're going to get married.

Taking measurements was mostly just a good excuse to see Lia and check out her new house. I'm dying of jealousy because I'm desperate to get out of our unit! Steve and I are going to start looking around next year.

When I moved in two years ago, I loved this place but I just can't look at those green window frames any longer!

I got a $10,000 bonus from work (which Steve and I wasted no time celebrating), so we might even be able to buy a house without a loan, like Lia and Gordon did.

I've been teasing Steve that the bonus means we can start a family right after the wedding. I do want kids some day but I'm not desperate for them soon. I just like to see him sweat!

Steve's a little nervous about the idea, because Lia and Ione both had twins. Like it's catching! Although Mum is a twin, and they do say it skips a generation, not that I'm going to remind Steve about that.
But we've got other things to think about before then, like invitations! It's amazing how many people think they should have input about who comes to our wedding.

With Steve's encouragement, I've been pretty firm about the guest list though. If we hardly talk to you, you're not invited. We're only having the people who are most important to us at the wedding.

We're getting a lot of RSVPs back now and the guest list is still looking a bit insane, but less insane than before! Much more manageable.

The wedding is going to be in Central Park, in Exeter. Steve and I went there on our second date, so it's kind of sentimental to us both. By the time the big day rolls around, all the trees should be beautiful and green, so it'll be a beautiful backdrop.

I can't wait until we're standing under that arch. Our wedding can't come soon enough!

Notes:
  • Title is from Jewels and Bullets by You Am I.
  • First up, comments are acting up yet again, which you probably know if your own blog is on Blogger! Some are delayed, some aren't appearing at all, and some are appearing and then disappearing. I don't know if I'm getting e-mail notifications for all missing comments, but I'm getting them for at least some of them. It's extremely frustrating but last time this happened, the missing comments appeared out of nowhere the next day. Hopefully, it'll be the same this time.
  • Argh, when I let Lia get pregnant, I totally forgot that I'd planned for her to be a bridesmaid for Olivia. Oh well...I guess these kinds of things sometimes happen in real life too but it means I need new bridesmaid dresses with pregnancy morphs. I downloaded some yesterday, so I'll just try them out until I find one that would work for Olivia.
  • Caterina rolled a marriage want for Julian when they first got together (first date, seriously!) but Julian took a little longer. Seeing he's Popularity, I guess he must be pretty serious. I was waiting to see if he'd roll the want before I let them get married, so he did and so I am. I haven't set a date yet for them but when I put up the play schedule for next round, I'll slot the wedding date in.
  • You know how most Sims go on dates and their wants generally go "flirt, kiss, make out, woohoo". Well, not Steve and Olivia. They had the want to talk and once Steve gossiped with Olivia, they were both raring to go - woohoo wants and "Ask X Home" (which they can't fulfill because they live in the same home). Olivia is so much like her mother and brother. I used to think it was because Max and Caterina are both Romance but apparently, they're just a very libidinous family!

15 comments:

  1. LOL, yes pregnancies happen in real life as well, especially if your friends are married before you are. Their wedding location looks very nice and I can't wait to see what "Olivia" whips up. How have you been having Olivia sew for the wedding?

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  2. Olivia and Steve are such a cute couple, I can't wait for their wedding! Haha, I see that Gordon has succeeded in scaring Steve away from kids forever, but I bet he'll get over it soon enough!

    Yay! I'm glad that Caterina and Julian are getting married, they deserve it, plus, it's not to often that you get to do elder weddings!

    Lol, Olivia and Steve always seem "ready to go", especially in College :P

    I hope you work the blogger issues out, Wordpress seems fine, except I've been majorly spammed lately, good luck!

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  3. Apple Valley, yes, it actually happened to two of my friends! One friend's sister was pregnant on her wedding day and one of my friends was very, very pregnant at our mutual friends' wedding. There was enough time for them to both back out of the bridesmaid deal though.

    Olivia finished her own dress last round, and in that picture, she's making Steve's suit. She's also making suits for Gordon and Evan and a flower girl dress for Jessica. I just this second decided on the bridesmaid dresses too, so she's going to whip those up in a minute.

    Tessa, not long to go for the wedding now. I just have two more family updates, then birthdays. Then it's wedding time.

    Fatherhood is a little scary for Steve. I think he would have been less nervous if they'd got started younger because he wouldn't have seen Gordon and Lia and Evan and Ione's super-fertility! He'll have to get over it because he's only got 4 neat points, Olivia's only got 2 and so they're not allowed to use BC!

    I've actually never done an elder wedding! Unless you count Maria, whose first husband was an elder when she married him. But I've never had two elders marry each other.

    I don't think there's anything I can do about the Blogger issues, unfortunately. I just have to wait for the comments to come back. Some of them have but others disappeared in their place. If I had my time again, I might have chosen Wordpress instead. You guys seem to have much fewer problems! Annoying as it is, at least you can deal with spam yourself, by deleting it or turning on comment moderation.

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  4. Aww a second wedding. I can see how it might take some time for Olivia to adjust to the idea of that. Your mom dating someone is one thing, but marrying someone else is entirely more permanent, and in your face so to speak. Suddenly they will be everywhere. Christmas, Weddings, etc. Things that boyfriends don't always have to attend.

    That's great that Lia is pregnant, I think. I love me some pregnant bridesmaids! It just adds such a touch of realism to it all. The worst is the "just had a baby and need to squeeze into a bridesmaid dress" I know all about that one. Lucky Ione (and sims for that matter) just pop right back into shape! (Mostly, I make some of mine stay a little pudgy lol)

    The comment issues are pain in the tush. I was getting errors earlier trying to leave a comment on the last update - basically sad that Debbie died. :( Wrote it all out, then it was gobbled by an error, and when I went backwards, no comment. Hopefully blogger can figure the issue and get it taken care of once and for all.

    Anyhow, I'm excited for Olivia/Steve wedding. I still remember them meeting up for the first time, and think Steve has definitely "aged" well. :)

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  5. I can't wait to see the wedding, I'm sure it's going to be fabulous! It's so romantic that they're getting married in the park where they had their second date.

    Sounds like it won't take long for Olivia and Steve to start a family since they're not allowed to use BC! Hopefully he can get in terms with becoming a father before that. And hopefully they won't have twins because that would really freak him out.

    I'm so annoyed with Blogger now with all the hassle with the comments. This isn't the first time and probably won't be the last either. If I could go back in time I would choose wordpress too.

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  6. I forgot to say that I'm really happy for Caterina and Julian :)

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  7. Yay, two weddings! I'm glad Caterina and Julian are doing what makes them happy. And I'm really looking forward to Steve and Olivia's wedding. lol, poor Steve, it has to be really scary seeing your friends keep popping out twins. ;)

    Sorry about all the problems you're having with blogger. :( If you guys that are having problems felt up to it and decided you'd had enough, you can export your blog from blogger and then import it into wordpress pretty easily. On the Settings tab in Blogger, there's a link that says Export. That will export your blog into an Atom file. Then when you sign up for an account on Wordpress.com, there's a link in the dashboard that allows you to import a file and it should set up all your entries like they're supposed to be. You may have to do some tweaking after it's imported to get everything exactly like you want it, but moving all the posts over shouldn't be a huge pain. Just an idea if you ever get to the point that you're tired of dealing with these problems. :)

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  8. I can't wait for their wedding!!!! I'm so excited. LOL

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  9. I love the weddingspot! It looks amazing, even without the leaves on the trees! As Olivia I can't wait until they are standing under that arch!
    It's nice that Catharina and Julian are finding happiness with eachother, and still want to tie the know, even at their age.
    I understand Olivia has a hard time with it, but she's happy for her mother, and that's a good thing!

    Finally caught up on all your updates, yay!!

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  10. Maisie, very true! It's going to be an adjustment for everybody but Olivia, at least, is trying for the sake of her mum and family unity in general.

    Now that I have the bridesmaid dress all picked out, I kind of love that Lia will be pregnant at the wedding too. It's a family event and what's more family than an impending baby?

    The comment issues seem to be better today but there are still a few missing here and there. It's happened before and they should have fixed it so it didn't happen again last time.

    I always wonder if anyone but me remembers the beginning of my Sims' relationships! Steve and Olivia's is memorable to me because they met online and had kind of an awkward first date.

    Sari, Steve and Olivia are the sentimental types. He proposed in the place they had their first date, so it's only fitting that they marry where they had their second.

    Yeah, I'm expecting a baby pretty soon from Steve and Olivia. They tried to try this round but I stopped them and globally turned off unmarried try for baby. I'll turn it back on for any unmarried couples who I want to try.

    LOL, I've barely even thought about Caterina and Julian's wedding! It's probably going to be a small one, maybe at Town Hall. I haven't used that since Kendal and Lake, which was now 11 years ago!

    Shana, especially two sets of twins, like Ione and Evan had! Crazy stuff! It's amazing Steve hasn't run screaming, just in case Ione and Lia's super-fertility has rubbed off on Olivia!

    Anyway, Olivia's wedding is all planned now. I even made a special recolour of the wedding arch for her (my first recolour ever!)

    Thanks for the info about Wordpress. I've copied and pasted that, just in case I ever do finally get fed up with Blogger!

    Riverdale, it's coming up soon! I'm anxious to get started but I still have two families to play.

    Tanja, heh, me either! I think everything is going to look really lovely!

    Well, I guess "why waste time?" might be another way to look at Caterina and Julian. Neither of them know how much time they have left (I do, of course!), so they might as well just get married now!

    Congratulations on catching up! :)

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  11. It's so funny that you are having to deal with the issue of the pregnant bridesmaid the same as Olivia. She has to sew the dress, but you have to look for it, lol. Cute way to write your own mishap in.

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  12. I'm so glad that it's almost time for Steve and Oliva's wedding (though I think you've already done it). They're going to make a gorgeous bride and groom. And that is too funny that Lia will be a pregnant bridesmaid. That'll look really cute, even though you have to change your original plan for their dresses. Isn't that how it always goes in real life?

    And cool about Caterina and Julian. It's nice to see they found love again so late in life. I'm glad Olivia's giving it a chance though I know it's probably really hard. It doesn't mean her mom will ever stop loving her dad but she deserves to be happen again. Same for Julian.

    And yes, Steve better get used to the idea of babies since they won't be using BC. I'm surprised they haven't had a baby before now. I was about to ask how they didn't get pregnant after all the woohooing they do but I just saw that you turned off the unmarried try for baby. I'm sure they'd have about 6 kids by now if you didn't LOL (though I know you wouldn't let them have that many). And Steve would probably have grey hair from all the stress lol.

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  13. Lunar, LOL, yes! I think it was probably more trouble for me than for Olivia though! But it's all done now, so the mishap wasn't so much of a big deal after all. I'm going to try to have the wedding post up tomorrow. :)

    Danielle, yes, I played through the wedding yesterday and it went about as smooth as any of my weddings ever have! No lag, no crash. Lovely. Lia looked super-cute with her little baby bump too.

    Kirstin's the one who's most likely to have a problem with Caterina and Julian getting married. Max loves Julian and Olivia's trying her best to get past her own hurdles. Kirstin will have to get used to it though, because once they get married, Caterina will be living in their house!

    This round is the first round I've been using this BC rule, so up until now, Olivia's been on birth control. So the try for baby hasn't been an issue until this round. We shall see what happens post-wedding!

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  14. Oh, how exciting! It's finally coming up! I feel like this wedding has taken longer to prepare than any other... or is it just that they've been dating longer? lol!

    I don't think I've ever had an elder wedding either, but I think it's sweet! I'm glad they've found each other to spend their final years with.

    Oh my geeze, on the pregnant bridesmaid, lol! IRL, my sister is getting married in just over a year, and if things go according to plan, I could very well be in quite the condition by then :o

    Though I think I'd much rather be pregnant than be pudgy with a newborn, lol!

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  15. Laura, LOL, well, Steve and Olivia were engaged for about two years! It's been a leisurely stroll towards marriage for these two, LOL.

    I still haven't got Caterina and Julian engaged. I should let them start wearing their rings now that Olivia and Steve are married (I doubt that's a spoiler for you!)

    I think I'd rather be a pregnant bridesmaid than stuck with post-baby weight as well! Sims don't have to deal with such things unless we force it on them though. ;)

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