Shifting Sands, 2004

Givar, winter, 2004
mini-update
To say that the Warwicks traveled in style was an understatement. They didn't bother with a long ferry ride from the airport after thier comfortable trip in first class, instead they chartered an helicopter to transport them back to the island of Kimikuria.

Sandy was trying not to become emotional this school year. However, it was difficult considering that it was her oldest's senior year and then she would be in university. The mother made sure that they had plenty of good old fashioned pillow fights followed by long chats with green tea. Thankfully Sandy was able to keep it together since Sazo couldn't. He had taken to randomly hugging the teen and staring at her baby pictures.

"I guess I should be happy for her, she will meet lots of new sims, but...I feel so old."

"Speak for yourself." Sandy said smoothing her hair that still retained its glossy vibrance. "I was but a young girl when S'Ahmisa was born."

"Do you think about having anymore?"

"Sometimes...but the girls are both in thier teens now and like you said, our oldest is headed off to university. What would it look like if we had another baby?"

While her parents were lamenting her eventual departure, S'Ahmisa was busy trying to soak up the culture and the hidden jewels of the island. She had finally been able to spot the fabled Jaroki. All the students at school said that he was a real life ninja, but after talking to him for a few moments, S'Ahmisa wasn't sure that she agreed. She had to admit that his eyes were very mysterious and she felt something like electricity go through her body whenever she glanced into those steel eyes.

She tried not to think of them or the warmth of his hand as he touched her skin, a risky move in Kimikuria. Most of the sims bowed to each other, there was rarely any touches exchanged which made the sensation of his skin against her cheek chilling. She tried to push out his haunting words:

You are worthy, my sweet blossom, until our paths converge again accept this gift of ancient knowledge.

Which is Your Favorite?

Fiona glanced up at the poster and smiled.

"It looks wonderful! It's perfect!"

The it she was referring to was a poster urging voters to come out.

Come Out and VOTE!!!

Pick your favorite Apple Valley family!

Winning family will win a custom furniture collection from Sim City
Furniture headed by Keith Dalton of Simmington Hills and designed by our very
own Jolie Dawson.

"Make 1,000 copies and hang them everywhere!"

----

Yes, vote for your favorite family using the poll in the sidebar. You have until Nov 20th to register your opinion on the matter.

Combined Terrain Found

Finally found a combined terrain that's larger than my current terrains, but not huge. Aptly named "The Island" it's from ClicknPyscho at MTS.

I plan on have the quadrant become Apple Valley Metro, bordered by Apple Valley, Apple Plains, Pierce University (which could be moved to border AVM instead of AV) and then I made some beach frontage areas so there can be some beaches for the hood.
I've started building some of the core buildings and progress is going slowly. After building all the buildings and adding neighborhood decor, I will do a clean sweep on the character files and start creating townies and dormies.

Vomiting Love, 2004

Resar, fall, 2004
Jesse is 38, Fiona is 35, Bill is 20, Veronika is 6, Jessica and Jennifer are 1

The twins are learning to pull themselves up and can reach the top of the activity table just fine. Big sister, Veronika, has been trying to teach them the basics of composition.

"You have to pay close attention to how the light reacts with the color and perspective of your composition."

The twins looked at her and chewed their crayons a little before scribbling over the paper.

"Jessica, you picked a really great color, but you should have gone a bit bolder."

Jesse giggled nearby as he stirred the pot of chili. Veronika had been learning all sorts of new vocabulary since her private lessons with Antonio. The man declared that not only was Veronika a natural talent, but that she was a prodigy.

She had now taken an interest in portrait paintings and was working on recreating her parents' wedding picture. Antonio was amazed.

"Her talent is almost as well as mine." He said before leaving from one of thier private lessons. "The way she sculpts the paint on the canvas, her compositions are surreal. You have to make sure to keep her involved in the arts."

"Just painting or perhaps we could introduce her to music." Fiona asked.

Fiona was musically inclined herself and spent many nights composing little tunes on the piano,

however she still hadn't mastered the art of tuning her piano and after one bruise too many perferred to call in the professionals.

"You could try music, but perhaps expose her to pottery, photography or even sewing."

"Sewing?"

"Sometimes great painters can translate thier ideas to fabric."

"We'll think about the sewing."

"Definately keep her involved though. Once she's a little bit older we could hire her as an intern in the art gallery and perhaps even sell some of her work."

Internships were still a long time away for the six simyear old, but her parents kept it in their mind. Besides thier art prodigy, thier hands were full with the twins. They were able to crawl around now and get into more trouble, but for the most part they would sit still during a story.

They would also sit still, or at least ride happily, on the tot park nearby

which is where big brother, Bill, found them. It was his junior year and things were going great according to him.

"It's weird, it's almost like that movie with the three wishes. My grades are great, my girl...well girls are great and I'm having a blast."

"I'm glad your social life is going well, but remember to focus on the reason why you're enrolled there."

"You mean it's not for the keg parties?"

Jesse gave him a look.

"I'm just kidding. I know that I'm there to get an education, it costs too much to play around."

"Good."

The money that Jesse slipped him made Bill more than agreeable to the proposition of taking his younger sisters to the standard kids establishment with cheesy games, coin operated rides and greasy food.

This gave Jesse and Fiona some much needed time alone together.

Yes, they had just arrived from Ray's wedding in Simmington Hills, but Fiona had been more than busy during the trip. She was constantly on her laptop with the hood council and her trusted advisors from the SUN community. He knew that she was planning some sort of emergency meeting and as a result large packages of papers and reports arrived daily in addition to the numerous cryptic phone calls. Jesse hoped that a few moments alone would ease her mind and allow her to let her hair down.

And down did come her hair!

The girls returned from the trip excited and eagered to share about their experiences while Bill dragged himself upstairs to crash and recover from chasing three children around a gaggle of other children.

"I don't know if I'm cut out for this kid thing."

"Well, just don't go making any and you won't have anything to worry about." Jesse remarked to his retreating son.

Fiona thought that spending a few moments with the girls was a beautiful ending to the night. The love in the room was so obvious from the father daughter cuddle on the couch to the twins cooing for attention.

It was perfect...until that love was vomited on Fiona.

---

Yes, Veronika painted that painting of the couple hanging on the wall, not bad for a six simyear old, huh? She really is a prodigy, I have no idea how she did it, but she has nine skill points in creativity and she really wants to max it out.

I wouldn't mind if they had another baby, but so far no desires or wants so maybe four is enough for them. It's strange that they have a 20 simyear old, but Jesse did adopt Bill while he was a young sim of 18 simyears.

Combined Terrain Sooner?

One of my favorite couples has experienced the jump bug. Yikes! I created clones and moved them into the hood and successfully killed off one sim, but the other one is walking around as an elder townie. The sims in the hood still have lots of memories with the original couple and I can detect that things will start getting glitchy as evidenced by the static thought bubbles and occasional strange occurances.

As a result, I fear that I may need to move to a combined terrain sooner. Why not just deal with the affected family? I can, it would be tedious in terms of memories, but it should even out after a generation. However, since I've been playing around with combined terrains, perhaps this is the push I need. I'm not ready to pull the plug on AV and move all the residents. I still haven't found a terrain that I'm happy about, most of them are too large, even the smaller ones. I guess when you're used to using tiny terrains, everything seems large if you have to move the camera around to see any part of the terrain :P

Vacations Aren't Fun, 2004

Resar, fall, 2004
mini-update

"Vacations aren't that fun," Myra explained to her friend. "Your parents tell you all sorts of horrible news like they're having a baby and you're going to the special ed class."

"Our vacations are fun," Amanda replies. "One time in Kimikura we went on this really neat hike and saw all the mountains and then we ran down this curvy hill."

"Well, all you can hope for is that your parents will bring you back a souvenir."

Rebecca and Julio had decided to take a short trip to warmer weather when the fall air turned unusually cold and dumped a few inches of snow in the hood. The twins were excited and rushed outside for snowman building and snowball fights while Rebecca stood guard chattering her teeth.

Julio made sure to spend a few moments with each child before leaving for the trip. This was a very busy simyear for the family as they had recently returned from Rebecca's brother, Ray's wedding in Simmington Hills and were now jetting off again.

The couple decided on Barco Bay with it's eclectic mix of traders' booths, abandoned pirate ships and the nearby sea.

Julio was thankful for the trip especially since Rebecca agreed to leave the birth control at home for the few simdays. Now, he was hoping the fertility gods were shining down on him and that there would be a baby growing by the end of the trip.

To his credit, Julio helped by creating numerous romantic opportunities whether it be slow dancing on the beach as the sun set over the horizon or


toasting to a delicious meal. Julio poured it one thick and Rebecca was putty in his hands. How could she resist, have you seen her husband! He was hot, the hottest sim around.

Julio must be the favorite sim of the fertility gods as in addition to the numerous tokens stuffed in her suitcase, Rebecca left Barco Bay with the newest Wilsonoff incubating.

----

Baby Wilsonoff is due Remar 2005 and is the third baby of the 2005 baby boom. Julio finally got his wish, even though the couple actually tried for a baby on their own during the vacation, it was from risky woohoo that Rebecca became pregnant. No idea yet if it's another set of twins or a singleton, but Julio is ecstatic about the news.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

Resar, fall, 2004
Tobi is 32; Ping, Aaron and Simora are 5; Matt is 1. Cameron Smith is 27.

They're discussing college funds of all things over breakfast when Tobi realizes just how quickly his life has changed. It was only a few weeks ago that he was visiting his ex-wife's bed, now he was discussing college tuition for children with his new girlfriend.

Cameron would agree that her life has changed dramatically as well. Her best friend and former roommate Brandi arrived to the townhouse to see who this guy was that had claimed her dear friend.


Perhaps Cameron should have thought twice about telling Brandi to be herself around Tobi. She forgot that sometimes Brandi would bring up inappropiate topics, but Tobi didn't seem to mind and even contributed to the illicit conversation. Thank goodness the children were spending time with Li that afternoon.

"You seem so happy," Brandi said just before leaving.

"I am very happy."

"Well, I guess you won't be coming home tonight, huh?"

Cameron smiled. "No, not tonight. The kids are with his ex, so we have the entire place to ourselves."

Maybe it was the conversation about college tuitions, or just both sims thinking about how happy they were with each other, but whatever it was took control of them in the bedroom.

"This would be the first time I would have done this intentionally." Cameron said.

"I know. If you don't want to, let me know. I don't want you to think that I'm trying to handcuff you down."

"Wouldn't you be the one who should worry that I'm trying to tie you down, lock you up, handcuff you, all that police jargon?"

Tobi smiled, "I would love to be tied down with you."

"Hmm, would you still say that when I'm as big as a sumo wrestler?"

Tobi laughed. "I don't know about that."

"Let's have a baby."

"A baby?"

"Yes, I love you. I want to have children with you."

"I would love to have children with you."

Cameron and Tobi didn't start out with family dinners and playdates in the park. They met when Cameron came into the station for information about an investigation she was covering for the local paper.
Tobi doesn't know if it was her blue eyes, curvy body or intelligent speech, but he quickly asked her out. He seemed almost surprised when she accepted and later that week they were flirting under the bright fall leaves.

They didn't see much of the Musuem of Simish History,

both were too distracted by thge sheer prescene of the other. It was as if a magnet was bewteen thier lips bringing them together time and time again.

Tobi wanted to go slow, he was fresh from a divorce, still torn over his feelings for his ex-wife and his ex-lover and now this...this goddess was before him. He couldn't explain it, but this was different. She was the one.

Maybe it was because his heart wasn't pulled in so many directions, maybe it was exactly this reason that he could feel the control over his heart being transferred to her.

Cameron couldn't help it as well. True she had lovers before and had been in love before, but this was different, like a bolt of electricity were striking the very core of existence, no, more like three bolts of electricity striking her.

She should have ran the other way. Four children and an ex-wife only spelled trouble for a young woman with a promising journalist career, but Cameron couldn't walk away.

Brandi would call her insane when she returned home that evening gushing about butterflies and magic, but Cameron didn't know how else to explain the sensations and the instant connection to him.

"Let's look around the stores," Tobi suggested after the casual dinner, not wanting to end this sensational date.

They browsed around furniture stores, both daydreaming about how they would decorate a place together, what pictures they would hang, the conversations they would have over coffee in the morning before the children woke up. Even the simplest gesture to another couple on thier first date held such significant impact to these two.

"Our first picture together," they sighed in unison.

It was getting late, both still wanted to ignore the time and continue to stare in each others' eyes but they had responsibilities and sims waiting for them.

"I had a wonderful time, a magical time. " Cameron gushed. It was her weakness according to Brandi, the fact that she easily spilled her heart. Cameron regarded it as her strength, it made sims around her comfortable and life was too short to simply sit on feelings and let good things pass by.

"I had a wonderful time as well...perhaps I could see you tomorrow? You could meet my children."

"I'd love to."

That was how Tobi and Cameron went from strangers to sharing family dinners, games of catch and nights spent huddled over writing exercises with the triplets.

The children adored Cameron, they were always telling her new riddles that they learned in school or begging her to swing them around or read them a story. Cameron happily obligied. She came from a large family and the sounds of children screaming and running was normal to her.

"Don't go," Tobi pleaded after the couple cleaned up the remains of dinner.

"I'll just call Brandi and tell her that I'm staying here tonight."

"That's not what I meant."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean stay here with me, with us, move in with us."

Cameron stumbled into the living room and sat down. She couldn't believe that he just asked her to move in with him. It wasn't that it wasn't wanted, but...wow.

"It will be wonderful, magical." Tobi presented. "We're wonderful together, you know that."

"I know, I don't doubt it. I just wonder...wow...wow, I never thought about our future together."

"We don't have to think beyond next week. Let's move in together and simply move from there."

"Tobi, you know that we can't take it one day at a time, especially now, especially with the baby."

Tobi nodded. "I am here. I promise you that I'm going to love you the rest of my life. I will love you as your boyfriend, husband, lover, whatever it is that you want me to be, I will be and I will love you."

Cameron nodded. "I know, I will love you forever as well." She smiled, "Has anysim told you that you move fast?"

Tobi laughed. "I don't believe in wasting time."

"Neither do I." Cameron agreed, "of course I'll move in with you."

That night as the couple laid in each other's embrace, thier thoughts in sync. Both thinking about the baby they made, the future plans that they crafted and the love woven between them.

"I love you," they whispered in unison.

----

They drove me crazy!!! They got together so hard and fast that it made my head spin. Yes, they're three bolters and yes they tried for a baby on thier own, not once, not twice, but five times! So needless to say they really wanted this baby-or babies. I thought my ACR was broken or something since they kept trying over and over for a baby and I never saw a couple try that many times for a baby. So needless to say, they're pregnant. Baby Sweeny/Smith is due Remar 2005.