Wednesday 2 January 2013

Young devilry


Round 34: November 2039 (Spring)

Josie Clarke is 37, Troy is 36, Jude is 7 and Andrew is 3. 
(Lake is 82, Kendal is 63, Calvin and Aaron are 36, Amy is 4 and Natalie is 2)


Narrated by Troy Clarke

For his 7th birthday in July, Jude asked for a toy oven. It seemed reasonable enough, so we agreed to buy him one.

He loves the thing! The only time he ever leaves it alone is when he runs out of ingredients.

He’s not bad with it either. He made me a muffin the other night and it was actually good, for something cooked in a toy oven.

Jude is way too young for a real oven but he’s already poring over our cookbooks, in preparation for the day we let him loose in the kitchen.

Josie and I have a ton of them, because we were trying to learn to cook when we first got married. It never really happened for me but Josie is decent. Jude will probably be better than both of us put together one day.

Andrew is still not dry at night, so we have to get up to him most nights. I wish he'd just sleep through it and let us deal with it in the morning.

It’s usually me who gets up, seeing Josie’s hours are less flexible. She’s always been a very light sleeper though, so she ends up waking up with me anyway.

Other than that though, things are better with Andrew now than when he was younger.

He’s a bit more content to amuse himself for a while these days.

That makes the days when I work from home go a little more smoothly.

Andrew does start getting bored an hour or so before Jude comes home. Andrew and boredom are never a good mix. I thought he would have grown out of splashing around in the toilet by now. 

He loves playing with Jude, thankfully, and Jude is always happy to oblige when he gets home.

I’m hoping the fact that he gets along so well with his brother and cousins means we won’t have too many issues with him when he starts pre-school next year. 

He’s very similar to us and while I was mostly okay with other kids, Josie was a bit of a nightmare. Not that she’d admit it.

So far, so good with Andrew though, so we’re hopeful. Patience’s son Patrick starts at the same time, so he'll even have someone he knows in his class. 

The spring rain held out for long enough for us to hold a little get-together on the roof, to welcome the newest little Clarke to the family. Calvin and Aaron were recently matched with their third child, a little boy named Curtis.

He’s only 8 weeks old and Calvin and Aaron have had him for just over one of those weeks.

Amy was dead set against having a brother but she seems okay with it now. She’s good little buddies with Jude, so she knows boys aren’t so bad.

She’s not terribly interested in Curtis at the moment but babies in general probably aren’t that interesting to a little kid like Amy.

I think Calvin and Aaron are going to love having a boy, after Amy and Natalie. It’s a whole different kind of energy but a lot of fun too. Calvin’s just relieved the adoption process is over now. Curtis will probably be their last child. He and Aaron both feel like their family might be complete.

Mum probably won’t be thrilled with that news. She’s a very enthusiastic grandma and I know she’s disappointed that Josie and I aren’t having any more.

She knows better than to nag us about it now. Josie would go nuts on her. 

She frets about Chris instead now. He’s still not seriously dating anyone and Mum thinks he should be.

I don’t really know what she expects me to do or say about it - Chris is a big boy now - but I’m glad the pressure is off us.

Josie has been adamant since Andrew was tiny that she was done having babies and I think I’m okay with that finally.

Jude is at a great age and we’re really enjoying watching him change as he grows up.

Andrew isn’t too far behind either. I’m excited to see how he does with school next year.

If Josie said tomorrow that she wanted one more kid, I know I’d jump at the chance. But I think now that I’ll be just as happy even if that never happens.

Notes:
  • Title is from Young Devilry by Sullen.
  • I am massively missing my CC! I'm going to be adding things in slowly. I'm being super-organised this time, using a method adapted from one I learnt about in one of livlukas's livesteams. Her method was a little too much for me, so I've pared it down a bit and hopefully, it will work well for my style. 
  • I did not experience any crashing or pink flashing this session, so yay. I'm still nervous to play though, like every time I load up. I'm so paranoid it will happen again, so if you guys could all continue to keep your fingers crossed, that would be awesome!
  • Anyway, let's talk about my sims! God, do you guys even remember who all these sims are, lol? I hope so! I was a bit worried that I wouldn't feel the same connection I did to them in the old hood. I have heard of simmers who've rebuilt their hoods and then complained that it was never really the same for them. I don't feel that way though. They're definitely still Troy and Josie to me. :) It was really nice to be able to play with them again.
  • I thought maybe creating new versions of these sims would make Josie roll the want for a baby. I wasn't hoping she would but I was curious to see how her wants would go. She still adamantly doesn't want another baby though. Troy started the session with a very stubborn baby want but it rolled away. So I'm going to take that as a sign that they're done. I don't think Josie is the kind of woman who could be talked into having another one when she really doesn't want to, so unless she rolls the want, Jude and Andrew are it for these two. 
  • And yay for Aaron and Calvin! I was so keen to get these guys finally matched up with their baby. I would have been able to play this update a couple of weeks ago had I sorted out the adoption issue I was having but with Christmas, I didn't get the chance. That was part of the reason I was so keen to get back to playing. I felt like I was making Aaron and Calvin wait much too long. ;)
  • I'm still following the same play schedule (as seen in my side bar) but expect updates to be slower coming than usual. My next family is the Kirby household and I haven't even made the sims in game, let alone put a house in for them. I will have to do that for every single family before I play them, so that's going to take a little time. I'm also cancelling the school updates for the mean time. I love doing them and I want to continue but you know...gotta build some schools first!

37 comments:

  1. Yay, an update! I'm clapping my hands together in excitement! I should be sleeping already but I just had to read and comment right away. :D

    I bet Josie and Troy can't wait for Andrew to start pre-school. Waking up in the middle of the night to change diapers must be exhausting. And how cute is Jude with his little toy oven! I need to buy that for some of "my" kids.

    How exciting for Aaron and Calvin to finally have their baby with them. I bet they're going to have a blast bringing up that boy.

    I had to dig up that video of livlukas's organizing tutorial and what can I say... I love her, lol! I didn't watch the whole thing but I did get some ideas how to make my overly-organized DL folder even more organized.

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    1. LOL, I'm glad other people are excited Sullivan is back! It was very exciting for me to be putting an update together again. I hope I can keep doing it with relative ease. :)

      I'm sure Andrew will be that little bit easier to deal with once he's not at home with them 24/7!

      I haven't checked Curtis's personality yet, so it remains to be seen how much fun he'll be, lol! We'll see him age up in September 2040 though - I should add that to the schedule.

      I watched the whole of the Livlukas' tutorial and it was quite interesting. She's got a really clear system. It's more than I'd ever want to do but my downloads folder was a complete mess before. It's much more organised now and I think it's going to be a lot easier to figure out where my stuff has come from.

      Thanks for reading!

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    2. I'm going to finish watching the tutorial today, it was getting too late yesterday and my brain couldn't absorb all the information.

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    3. Yeah, it's pretty long and there are two parts. I sent livlukas and ask on Tumblr after I finished watching and she linked me to where someone had uploaded the folder structure. It was very helpful! And it's here, if you or anyone else would like it.

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  2. To be honest, I didn't recognize Josie until I pulled up her profile. I never knew she had such a strong jaw line until this update. I've been playing for two years (or is it three now), and believe it or not, I've never had a child use the toy stove so I'll need to try that.

    I'm happy for Aaron and Calvin. I can't wait to see how their child looks later on, since you recently swapped your face template. Or was he one of customs you added in the adoption pool?

    I also found it amusing how you ensured that only a little bit of the rooms were shown - definitely shows how much you miss your cc.

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    1. Heh, Josie definitely looks the most different of all the sims I've made so far. For me, it's mainly the fact that she isn't wearing any make-up. Her lips are usually much darker. But she does indeed have quite a strong jaw. She looks a lot like her grandmother, Leontine.

      Curtis is a custom baby but he is the child of two random sims I made just for that purpose. They each had a template face, so he'll give me a decent idea of how these templates breed.

      LOL, showing a little bit of the rooms was not intentional but I was probably doing it subconsciously. I try to choose pictures that are more attractive to me and seeing my game is not especially attractive to me right now, I'm not showcasing as much of my lots as I normally might!

      Thanks for reading!

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  3. So happy to see an update! I'm glad you're back to playing, even if it is slowly. Sometimes slow and steady is best. I understand about the school updates, building a school is a bit much right now. Thanks for the link to organizing downloads.

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    1. This is definitely going to be a slow process! Mainly out of necessity, because there are only so many hours in the day but also to ensure I'm not adding back any bad custom content. I still don't really have much of an idea what caused my crashing or pink flashing, so I'm being very cautious.

      Thanks for reading!

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  4. So good to hear that you have not had any pink flashing or crashes in the new hood yet!
    As far as I can see, there is already quite a bit of CC back in your game :-) (clothes and hairstyles)
    I am still considering giving my megahood a make-over; your way of organising the various parts of the neighbourhood appeals a lot to me.

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    1. Yes, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it continues that way! Funny that you see these clothes and hairstyles as custom though. The only custom hair is Aaron's, Calvin's and Kendal's and the clothes are all EA. I don't have a single piece of custom clothing in yet. Most of the very little CC I have in at the moment are things you can't see - essential hacks, mostly.

      Ha, my hood is not really organised at all but I'm glad I could inspire you, in any case. I hope you're happier with your megahood as a result. :)

      Thanks for reading!

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  5. Yay for no crashing or pink flashing! I understand about the slow updates too; it's best that you take these kind of things slowly, after all.

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    1. Long may it continue, right? It seems like doing this slowly is the more sensible thing to do here. I'm trying to weigh up what CC I need the most that I can add for the next update! It'll probably be some walls and floors, I think.

      Thanks for reading!

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  6. So happy to have you back!! Missed these updates!! And woot on baby Curtis! I really hoped they were getting a brand new baby since you were even playing with the adoption pool, I figured it was a good chance! Can't wait to see what he looks like when he grows up.

    I didn't even notice the lack of CC in the house, and your sims totally look like themselves too. I could even recognize Amy and Natalie easily too, especially little Natalie, she has such a cute, recognizable face.

    Hopefully Chris settles down and has some babies for his Mom.

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    1. I missed doing the updates too! I love sharing my sims with everybody. I was really keen to get Aaron and Calvin matched up with their baby. I had actually done it in Sullivan 1.0, right before I decided the crashing had become too much to bear. They got a boy then too. :)

      I think kids are probably easier to recognise than adults, especially adult women. I don't use any make-up on them, so their faces are identical. And Amy and Natalie's hairstyles happened to have fairly close matches among the EA styles, so that was good.

      I think Kendal will be waiting a while, though I'm sure Chris will have kids eventually.

      Thanks for reading!

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  7. So happy your game has finally allowed you to get an update up! I have really missed them :) Fingers are still crossed of course. I think Troy and Josie make a good family with just 2 boys and I can't imagine Josie backing down either so it looks like they are done. Both the boys are adorable even if Andrew can be a bit of a pain sometimes... I'm so happy about Aaron and Calvin's baby- we were really left in suspense there. LOL. I had forgotten just how many babies are due to arrive over the next few months in Sullivan!

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    1. LOL, I had too! Someone (I think Maisie) mentioned Leslie's twins the other day to me and I thought "oh yeah, I forgot she was having twins!" It really has been a long time for me!

      I hated leaving you guys in suspense for so long but I'm just glad you all still seem to be interested! Aaron and Calvin are relieved to be back and finally have Curtis with them, I'm sure. :)

      Thanks for reading!

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  8. OMG, Carla! You did it! I am in awe of your determination (and awesomeness)! I'm so glad you thwarted the nasty evils of CC and Sullivan is back up and running (even if it's a 'new coat of paint', so to speak.) Hopefully the crazy organization prevents this from happening again. :(

    I remember them! I laughed so hard at them all being done with kids. Kendal probably wants them to have litters. At least the pressure is on Chris now!

    Josie's facial expressions in some of those pictures was too much. You can see she is clearly done with having babies.

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    1. Aw, thanks Mao! I added some things in yesterday - some Bruno make-up - because I was making Claudia and Megan and they're so pale that they really need a tiny bit of make-up! I haven't loaded the game with that stuff in yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

      Kendal kind of wanted a litter herself but her life circumstances only let her have three. By the time she remarried, her fertile years were declining and she was lucky to have Chris. All of his older siblings are finished (I don't see Rose or Patience having any more either), so in Kendal's view, it's his turn!

      Poor Josie. Yes, she's totally done now. Even if they'd had another angel like Jude, she doesn't want to take any more time out of her career. That's a big deal for a woman like her.

      Thanks for reading!

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  9. Hooray for Sullivan being back!

    Random long story: I have two siblings who were adopted, a sister who is 6 and a brother who is 1. My sister, of course, adamantly wanted a girl baby. However, a few months after our brother came home, she announced, "I love my baby brother! I didn't want a baby sister after all, Matthew is way more cuter!"

    That has nothing to do with your Sims, but Amy's wish for a baby sister reminded me of that.

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    1. Aw, that's a cute story! I guess it just shows that sometimes life's plans are better than your own.

      Thanks for reading!

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  10. So glad you're back, I've missed Sullivan! :) I didn't notice the lack of CC either, honestly. I'm impressed you took the time to build it again, I would have been too angry with the game, most likely.

    Aw, I get that Josie's done now and I'm glad they can agree about it (sort of).

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    1. Aw, thank you. I only briefly considered throwing in the towel with Sullivan - it was literally a couple of minutes. But I figured, it worked once on this computer and I could make it work again. Rebuilding is a huge job but it's also going to let me get rid of some custom content I never really used or needed, as well as allowing me to fix some little annoyances that I probably would have just lived with in Sullivan 1.0. So it's not all bad.

      I think it was pretty telling that Josie 2.0 doesn't want more babies any more than Josie 1.0, lol! I do believe that woman is 100% done! Troy knows he has no chance of convincing her, so he pretty much has to agree. At least on the outside, anyway!

      Thanks for reading!

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  11. oh, how nice, there's an update, I'm really so glad to see your Sims again! I missed them. :-)

    Astrid

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it! There'll be another update tomorrow. :)

      Thanks for reading!

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  12. It's so nice to see Sullivan up and running again! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the glitches stay away as you continue the rebuilding efforts.

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    1. Thanks Caitria. I'm hoping things continue to go smoothly. I have a little more custom content in now but still under 200MB total, so not much at all. I'm going to try playing Lake and Kendal tomorrow, so we'll see how I go.

      Thanks for reading!

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  13. I'm playing catch-up tonight, but it's great to see new updates.Even with limited cc, your game still is very appealing and your sims look pretty the same to me, minus the hair.I wonder if Troy will re-roll another baby want.I'm sure he wants to appease Josie, but do you think it's possible for him to actually want another baby later?

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    1. Thanks Apples! They look about the same to me too but I'm just missing my CC, hair especially at the moment. It just seems to go the farthest towards making my sims my sims, if that makes any sense!

      Troy definitely could reroll a baby want but I don't always follow my sims' wants, especially with babies. In Troy's case, I think even if he starts wanting another kid, he's going to have to work through that want in another way because I cannot see Josie ever agreeing to try again. Probably the only way they'd have a third is a risky woohoo pregnancy. But seeing I don't have ACR back in yet and Josie's fertility would be declining anyway, I don't think there's much of a chance of that happening! But you never know!

      Thanks for reading!

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  14. So glad you're back up and running again, even if it's slightly vanilla :). They still look like your sims and so glad they still act like them, too. That's the most important thing. And I know your game must load super quick now, which is awesome. Having CC is more awesome, though.

    Jude is so cute with his little oven. Maybe Josie and Troy will have him cook for the family when he becomes a teen so they can have some decent meals lol. And seeing it's already November in your game (well, December now), we're so close to birthdays!! I can't wait to see how Andrew looks (and whoever else needs to age up!) I wonder if he looks a lot like Jude.

    Great first update back. Congrats to Aaron and Calvin on their newest addition (and congrats to you on getting that issue fixed). I can't wait to see how they are with a baby in their update.

    Oh, I checked out that tutorial and it was very interesting. Thanks for the link! I think I might do that for some things, but probably not my whole downloads folder. I started a fresh female hair folder and redownloaded only the Pookleted hairs I really wanted and I love it! I had a few duplicate retextures by different creators and doing this way made it so easy to delete the one I didn't want. I really can't image doing this for something like clothing, though (so many female clothes ugh!!)

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    1. Yes, at the moment, with about 200MB of downloads, my game is loading in about a minute, lol! Ridiculous! I would rather have my CC though! ;) But I'm still having fun, so that's the main thing.

      Ha, I can just see Josie and Troy handing over the reins in the cooking department once Jude is old enough! They eat okay, no thanks to Josie, but Troy isn't particularly into cooking.

      I just had a look at my birthdays and am a bit disappointed actually - I have hardly any! There's Patrick and Andrew, plus Madelyn. There are a couple of graduations too. But Chloe and Zane's baby is due too, so that's exciting. :)

      I think Livlukas says at a couple of points in the tutorial that it's the kind of thing that's easier to do if you're starting over with your Downloads folder, like I am. Adding CC in as slowly as I am, it's pretty easy to use this system. And yep, I'm instituting a Pookleted hairs only rule too! I always wanted to but I needed a kick in the bum to actually do it. It means I'll need to find new hairstyles for a couple of my sims but I'm okay with that. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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    2. I'm so sorry it took me this long to finally post a comment, but with changing jobs, and some other RL-stuff going on, I didn't feel like it most of the time, so I'm really sorry!

      Anyway, I'm glad you're playing again, I've missed Sullivan! And I think it's amazing you can play without CC, I don't think I will ever be able to, especially since I have a ridicilous amount of CC (over 18GB!), nor will I ever be able to organize my downloads properly.
      At first (years ago) I just popped them all in the 'downloads' folder, without seperating them, and I haven't gotten around to organize them. Now I just put them in seperate folders by month - I'm aware that that is the crapiest system ever!

      To the update then :) Troy and Josie still feel like Troy and Josie to me as well. I have to admit I was a little bit scared I wouldn't reconize your sims without the CC, but when you posted the first pictures on tumblr, I reconized them all :)
      I was kind of hoping they would have another baby, but now that I think about it, it feels like their family is complete with their 2 boys, and they all seem happy.
      I'm so glad that Calvin and Aaron have their 3rd child! And Even though Amy isn't too happy with a boy, I'm glad it's a boy :)

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    3. Don't even worry about it, Tanja. :)

      I have never actually played entirely without CC, including right now. At the very least, I need default skins and eyes. I'm more CC-lite right now, but with as much content as I had before, it's almost like having nothing at all! I didn't think I could do it either but starting from nothing, it's easier to stay organised. Livlukas's system is awesome too.

      I'm glad my sims are still recognisable without their CC hair and clothes! I tried to use hairstyles for them that were comparable to what they had in Sullivan 1.0, so it wouldn't be too much of a shock to the system...for you guys and for me!

      I'm pretty happy with Calvin and Aaron having a boy now too, Amy's objections aside! I'm not thrilled with the name I chose though, to be honest. It was just the first thing I thought of. But I'm getting used to it. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  15. I thought I'd read this post, but it turns out that I'd only begun it! In any case, I'm glad you were able to do enough recovery to make your recovery of the hood feasible, and that your Sims feel the same to you! How excited for Calvin and Aaron--I think little Curtis will be a sweet addition to their family. I had to laugh at Kendal's nagging for more grandchildren--and her constant worries over Chris. I do wonder if Josie might be the type to have a last-minute child want, just before she ages past the possibility. But perhaps not!

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    1. Me too, believe me! I'm hoping things continue to go smoothly but if they don't, I can be fairly certain that this time, it wouldn't be the hood. I've been very careful creating it and that will hopefully stave off any hood-related issues. :)

      I'm happy Calvin and Aaron ended up with a boy now. It seems right somehow, with little Curtis joining their family.

      I was so pleased Kendal's priorities in this new hood are still exactly the same as in the old hood! She seems made to be a grandma. She would be thrilled if Josie got one of those last-minute baby wants but I'm not sure she will. Troy probably will, because he's Family, but in my game, baby wants seem very rare for non-Family sims. But who knows what will happen in this new hood? My sims with pets seem to be getting wants to get them jobs, which never ever happened in Sullivan 1.0.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  16. Blogger keeps eating my comments, so I'll jsut say I'm glad to see everyone back and move on.

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    1. Is it that you think they're being eaten but they're actually just not approved yet? I turned on comment moderation for older posts and I've had a couple of people post more than once, thinking the comment didn't go through. But just bear that in mind if you're commenting on older ones (more than two weeks old). :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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