Counting the Years

Remar, summer, 2001
Antonio is 49, Carmela is 41, Verde is 14, Rojo is 8 and Serendipity is 4



The warm summer weather and lull in activities around the Herendez house was refreshing. Antonio was looking forward to his 50th birthday. Most men fear the dreaded 5-0, but not Antonio. He planned on moving into semi-retirement once he reached 65 and he promised Carmela that at 50, they would take a nice family vacation.

However, he wasn't 50 yet and there was work to be done. The weather was nice so he spent most of his time painting outdoors on the sundeck with little Serendipity watching with earnest. She would be turning 5 this month and the family had planned on a joint birthday party for Antonio and Serendipity.

"How is it going sweetheart?" Carmela asked joining the pair on the deck.

"Nice, I'm almost done with the background and can start on the foreground soon."

She nodded and then joined her daughter on the cool tile floor. "Are you excited about the birthday party?"

"Yea! Cake and balloons?"

"Yes, lots of cake and balloons."

Carmela was a little sad to see her youngest grow up so quickly, part of her wanted another baby, but time was running out and with three children...perhaps they should stop.

"And there's going to be a clown!!!" Carmela said to the giggling girl.

"I luf clowns!"

---



Verde and Rojo had a busy summer planned for them. Thier parents enrolled them in summer courses, thankfully they were able to chose what course they took. Rojo chose music therory, which wasn't surprising since he loved playing on his musical synthesizer and was starting to compose bits of tunes.

Verde chose a soccer camp, which also wasn't surprising since he loved sports with a passion. It wasn't a surprise that S'Ahmisa also enrolled in the class and that she was earning higher marks than Verde. The couple spent almost every afternoon agruing about it.

"That's because the coach likes you better."

"Whatever, that's because I'm better than you." She teased.

"You are not!"

"Am too!"

"Are not!"

"Verde, get over it." Rojo said passing the pair with his latest composition in hand. "S'Ahmisa is a better soccer player than you. All the kids in music therory say the same thing."

"What do you guys know, you're a bunch of band nerds." Verde retorted.

"We know that S'Ahmisa totally schooled you on the field yesterday with that last goal."

S'Ahmisa couldn't help but laugh as Verde chased his brother around the house.
---
Carmela was used to seeing S'Ahmisa over thier house every afternoon and many times she joined them for dinner as well. S'Ahmisa came from a good family, she was a trust fund baby, but wasn't a spoiled brat. Instead she was a caring young woman who was well liked in the neighborhood. Many times her younger sister, Si'Enya joined her and then Antonio would joke that maybe the kids would have a double wedding: Verde and S'Ahmisa and Rojo and Si'Enya.

Tonight, Carmela couldn't spend time chatting with the girl as she usually did after dinner. She was busy on the phone.

"I don't think disabling the website is a good idea...a website is a stable amoung SUN hoods." She discussed on conference call with Fiona and Rebecca.

S'Ahmisa wondered why the three women didn't just sit out by the grill and chat since they were all neighbors, but then she remembered that Fiona was on another business trip. Fiona was one of her distant relatives, so her daddy talked about the happenings of the Kent family quite a bit. Perhaps if she entered politics she would be able to travel the world like Fiona. S'Ahmisa knew that she had some time to think about her options for the future, but she honestly didn't know how everything would fit together. She loved to travel and after her trip to Jah Bal Bazaar she made a list of things she wanted to do and see while seeing the world.

"Besides the fact that we absolutely need Li's position to remain active, unless we want another large scale disaster on our hands, thier family can barely afford food."

They can't afford food? S'Ahmisa wondered. She thought about her fridge stocked with leftovers and being able to be picky about what they had for dinner. She knew that the economy was bad, but were some residents truly starving? There wasn't a way to find out if it was true or not, but S'Ahmisa planned on stopping by the Sweeny's to offer her babysitting services and perhaps some food. Wait, that was too obvious and lots of sims have thier pride, so perhaps she could ask for tutoring...yea, her daddy wasn't impressed with her language arts grade and Li was a writer and reporter, so perhaps she could get her to tutor her in exchange for free babysitting (and some food snuck into the fridge).

"How would residents find out thier news if there's no newspaper?" Carmela continued, trying to negoiate a happy medium.

"I suppose we could change the publication schedule, that would save on printing costs."

---

When Carmela wasn't trying to find ways to cut costs and not jobs, she was busy making plans for the large scale birthday party. Jadhira was helping her with the invitations and she managed to convince Nicole to use her drama background and play the role as a clown. Carmela was also using the job as an excuse to press a few simoleans in Nicole's hand. The entire island knew that the Humphrey family's finances were tight, they had to sell thier pets and even sell a few items on the internet to pay bills. It was beginning to look like Lyndon might have to find another job besides being the hood's pastor.

"Catering-check, balloons-check, cakes-check, clown-check...what am I forgetting?"

"Do you have the gifts?" Rojo asked, looking through a stack of CDs for the party.

"OH!!! I almost forgot!!!" she exclaimed and rushed out the door. "I'll be back in time for dinner!"

---

Despite the small hiccup, the party went well. There was plenty of cake for everyone and some latino tropical treats as well. Nicole did a wonderful job as the clown and after running home to change, she rejoined the party. The two women chatting over a game of Don't Wake the Llama.

Jadhira's help with the invitations proved crucial as she was able to get some school aged children to attend the event and Serendipity was able to start meeting new sims.

After her mother pulled her away from following the clown around, in order to give Nicole a break, Myra Shazad introduced herself to the birthday girl.

"My uncle is a doctor." Serendipity explained.

"I know, he's pretty cool. I got to pick out a sticker for my last check-up."

"A sticker!" Serendipity said in awe, her tiny head filling with images of a sticker filled office.

--- Later that evening, once the party was over and everything cleaned, Antonio and Carmela spent some quality time together.

"You really should put on some clothing." Antonio admonished his wife.

"You know you don't mean that." She flirted.

He smiled as he grabbed her hand, no he didn't mean that, leading her upstairs.

---
A double birthday party! How do you celebrate birthdays?