Census 2002

Number of Residents=39
Elder-2
Adults-17
Young Adults-2
Teens-4
Children-10
Infants/Toddlers-4 (+1 due early 2003)

2002 Edition of Apple Valley News is available online!

End of the Year Musings

Peacar, Winter, 2002
Lyndon is 48, Nicole is 46, Harvis and Susie are 16 (Faith is 18 and a freshman at PU)


Over a bowl of cereal, Lyndon decides that he has to find employment outside of his duties as the pastor for the hood. It's either that or move to cheaper housing, but the lease isn't up on the house until 2004, which is when the twins are off to university. Until then, he could either break the lease or find a job.


While fixing the leaking shower for the fifth time this simmonth, he thinks that maybe he should offer his services as a handysim.


However, he isn't fond of getting his clothes wet while banging the faucet with his wrench.


Nor is he fond of rewiring the components of the computer, to be honest, it actually bores him. Ok, that's not quite honest, he loves tinkering around the house, but it confounds him most of the time. He doesn't quite know the names of his tools, nor how items should fit together.


Finally he settles down with the paper and searches for a job. There's not a whole lot available and those positions that are available are low paying. He needs to find something soon, the only steady source of simoleans is Nicole's position as a sound engineer at the orchestra in the Metro.


Nicole is in love with her job. There are so many aspects of her employment that she enjoys. She loves being in an urban setting and walking around the metro, finding unique places to eat for lunch, or at least watch her co-workers eat while she enjoys her turkey and rye sandwiches from home. Her co-workers are very nice, which is a bonus considering how closely they must work together.


Nicole brings Harriet to the house after work to go over thier plans for the grand opening of the orchestra. The 2003 opening season will start with the orchestra's performance of "Ode to Springy Steps". Currently, they are having issues with the quality of the harp's microphones. The volume simply isn't loud enough to disperse throughout the concert hall.


To make matters even more stressful, the local media would be there to review it and if the journalist can't hear, then the review will be horrible. Thankfully, it doesn't take too long for the women to think of a set of solutions and Harriet is able to leave on the 7 o'clock ferry back to the metro.


Which is just in time for a slow dance with her husband.

"How was your day?" He whispers in her ear.



"Busy. Thankfully it is over. How about yours?"

"Busy. I fixed a couple of things, spent an hour on the phone with Tobi, trying to encourage him about the pregnancy and his finances."



Nicole nodded. She knew the young couple was having a hard time. With toddler triplets and a fourth unplanned baby on the way, money was even tighter in thier household. She also tried to encourage Li whenever possible and together they often visited the young couple to allow them to vent thier frustations of raising a growing family while watching thier salaries shrink.


Before they could continue thier conversation or thier caressing, they heard Harvis's voice at the door. Recently the teen found a job working as a lab assistant at Aspirational Labs. Thier neighbor helped him to get the job at her workplace. At least she was good for something besides fighting out in the common yard with her boyfriend.


"I'm home." Harvis said emotionlessly as he entered the door to the sight of his foster parents tickling each other. He rolled his eyes and headed to the computer. It was almost a nightly ritual of his to search the internet for any UFO sightings or blue alien sightings. He knew that there were more blue aliens in the nation, but he didn't know where.


He wanted to find them again...why were they waiting so long to claim him and his siblings. They were royalty, he knew this as sure as he knew that the sky contained two moons.

What annoyed him the most was that his sister Susie was chasing after the wrong things. He knew that she would invite friends to the house to distract him while she sneaked to the backyard to create some potion or another.


Susie didn't deny her fascination with the paranormal ways, in fact she began to openly embrace them. She even applyed a face paint-much like her ancestor Squirly Swims.


She spent her days afterschool studying the ancient secrets that remained locked to her.


But on most occasions she could be found with her mentor, and crush, Liam. It was hard, he was the most powerful warlock she knew, but more importantly ten simyears older than her. Maybe it was his power that attracted her to him, or his smile. Whatever it was, she was addicted.


However, he wisely kept her at arm's length. "You should find a boy your own age." He encouraged her. Not because he wasn't interested, but for precisely that very reason. He didn't want to end up in jail. She tried, honestly, she tried to find a boy her own age. She finally cornered that cute paper delivery guy in the backyard and got a kiss out of him.


It felt like she was cheating. Even though Liam denied her, Susie's heart in fact belonged to the man. She quickly ran from the backyard and hopped on her trusty broom for a therapeutic ride around the neighborhood.


While one daughter was dealing with the trama of an unfortunate choice for her first love, Lyndon wanted to be sure that his other daughter wasn't going to screw up her chances at a degree. The weather was nice when Lyndon invited Faith to the house to pick up some of her things. He passed the time by lazily trying to catch butterflies.

Finally Faith arrived on the morning ferry. She couldn't stay long as she had a final exam that evening. Lyndon handed her a small gift.

"What is it?"



"Open it and find out."

She did and found a music book of violin scores signed by her favorite composer. "How did you get this?"

"I found it on an online auction." Lyndon said, proud that his daughter enjoyed the gift.

"Thank you, daddy."

"You're welcome."

After a quick lunch, Lyndon finally broached the conversation and the true reason why he asked the young woman to make the commute to Apple Valley from campus.



"Please, Faith, be careful."

"About what?"

"Don't get pregnant again. You are there for an education, don't screw it up."



"Don't worry, daddy, I'm won't. I'm focused on my studies." She told the half-truth easily. She was also focused on Bill, Todd, joining the sorority and her planned spring break trip.



Convinced that he sufficently warned his daughter, they departed after a lightheaded rendition of the Pierce University fight song.

Education Note: State of Education

State of Apple County Educational System
Apple County has an excellant education system that instills the very best in all our students.

Apple Valley Academy
Interium Principal: Ilila Peterson
High School Teacher: Jesse Kent
High School Teacher: Krissy Thorn
Primary School Teacher: Rosemarie Mendenhall
Primary School Teacher: Henry Mendenhall
Primary School Teacher: Jasmine Frankson
Music Teacher: Gretchen Humphrey
Dance Teacher, part-time: Susie MacAstral

Curriculm: Elementary and Secondary Education K-12

Application for Graduation from AVA: C average or better, score a 6 in one skill exam.

Pierce University
Premier university education.

Kimkura University
Study aboard experience for university students

Starting Over so Late

Peacar, winter, 2002
Johan is 41, Jadhira is 40, Myra and Naraj are 7

The winter was fairly mild, but not mild enough to excuse Myra from running around in her summer clothing. She insisted that she was fine, but when her father hugged her upon his arrival home from work, he found her skin clamy.

"Myra is sick." Johan said tossing his books to the table. "She has a fever and she's sneezing. We need to call Dr.Wilsonoff."

Jadhira sighed, it wasn't what she needed to hear at this moment. Her day at work was disappointing to say the least. Her boss, Grex Grey, pulled her aside after the market closed for the day and revealed that he would be moving to Apple Plains to be closer to his family. The Farmer's Market would be closing at the end of the simmonth, thier farm had already been sold to the hood council for more housing. He gave her a weak offer to continue working as a florist in the Apple Plains Farmer's Market owned by his family. Unfortunately, the commute would be too much for Jadhira. A twenty minute ferry ride to the nearest train station, followed by a twenty minute train ride to Apple Plains. Jadhira wasn't fond of the idea of an hour commute for work each day each way.

Now Jadhira was a 40 year old woman without a job come the end of the month and her daughter is sick.

"Dr. Wilsonoff," Jadhira called. "Myra is sick. Should I bring her in to see you?"

Jadhira listened as the man gave her explicit instructions on the care of the sick child. Plenty of rest and fluids, keep her warm and feed her soup. If she doesn't recover in 3 simdays, give him a call.

After Myra was put to bed, the rest of the family ate a dinner of trout, grilled vegetables and santa cookies. Jadhira could barely keep her food down and had to rush to the bathroom to pay homage to the god of the toilet. Perhaps it was just her nerves concerning her employment status, she reasoned as another wave of nausea hit her.

Downstairs, the boys of the family finished thier meal.

"Dad, can you play the 'Llama Dama' song when you pee?"

"What?" Johan asked, nearly choking on his fish.

"Can you? Abel showed me how, I could show you."

Johan shook his head, "No thank you."

----

After the dishes were cleaned, Johan found his wife and wrapped his arms around her.

"Are you ok?" he asked, swaying to the music in his head.

Jadhira's eyes filled with tears and she told him everything. How she was going to be unemployed, how she was worried about finding another job with the skills she had-and more importantly with the skills and degree she didn't have.

"Don't worry, sweetheart." He said calming her down with a deep kiss. "You have plenty of time to look and find a job. Perhaps you could give Carmela a call and ask her about that art foundation, perhaps she needs some pottery artists or something."

----

Jadhira does call Carmela and the woman promises to send her some information about the art foundation. It wasn't a job offer, in fact the words job, employment or salary were not mentioned, but Jadhira did feel better.
Her day only got better as Naraj came home with an A on his simlish history project. He better have an A! She and Johan stayed up all night doing-helping-him with that project. Finally, little Myra climbed out of bed, groggy, hungry and fever-less.

She makes Naraj's favorite meal, cheesy macaroni, while he plays with the cat-a Christmas gift, and Myra surfs the internet. By the time Johan arrives home, dinner is ready and the entire family eats together.

Johan shares stories about his day as the President of Apple County Board of Education. How the construction of the new school building is almost complete and should be ready by the fall of 2003. How the university is undergoing renovation on some of it's older buildings, how the plans for the school in the metro are going (expected fall 2006).

"Mom, are butt kissers and brown nosers the same thing?" Naraj asked.

Johan nearly choked on his macaroni. Where was his son getting this information!!!

Archives/Technology Note: Blog Changes

Li Yoo Sweeny

Notice any changes? Yes, the hood council asked me to combine all the archived blogs into one blog. For a few days/weeks, you will notice the labels shifting and changing as I import the archived blogs, change labels and basically try to organize several years of chaos.

In the end, this blog will contain all the archived blogs for the Apple Valley community, with labels sorted by family and titles contain the name of the sim writing the post.

The process is fairly systematic. I plan on importing one blog at a time, correcting titles and labels and then importing the next blog. Here is the order:

Hood Council Notes
SUN Exchange: Sandy Warwick
The Dawson Family
The Grey Family
The Herendez Family
The Humphrey Family
The Kent Family
The Shazad Family
The Sweeny Family
The Warwick (Kent) Family
The Wilsonoff Family
---
The Burrego Family
The Dawson Family (Elaine)
The Grey Family,_53A McIntosh Blvd (Astaire)
The Grey Family, 53A McIntosh Blvd (Clark)
The Harbin Family
The Herendez Family (Elinor & Pablo)
The Marsh Family
The Mendenhall Family
The Pierce Family

Counting the Blessings

Givar, winter, 2002
Jorge and Jolie are 35, Grace Elise is 7

Givar started as quite an odd month for the Dawson family. Jolie was beginning to accept the fact that Grace Elise would probably be thier only biological child and simply focus on the fact that she was healthy. Perhaps it was how her sister Jodi, lost everything she owned in a fire in Riverdale or how Ginger Grey lost her mother last simmonth. Perhaps it was how a year ago this month, the Grey family had a healthy baby boy, but two weeks later, thier baby was dead. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) was the official cause of death. The residents rallied around the young family, bringing food and comfort. Helping Ginger deal with the loss caused Jolie to grow closer to the woman. She no longer feared her cooking prowess, instead the duo often met to exchange recipes and cooking techniques.

"I'm taking this over to Ginger!" she called to her husband as she packed the small assortment of food.

"Can I come too?" Grace Elise asked.

Jolie was hoping that Grace Elise would ask to walk over to the farm with her, that would give her father some needed time to pick up her Christmas present.

"Of course."

"Can Puggles come too? He likes to play with Annie and Bryant."

Grace Elise and the Grey twins, Annie and Bryant, were in the same second grade class at school, along with the Shazad twins, Myra and Naraj. The five children were part of a small baby boom in Apple Valley years ago. Thankfully, Grace Elise had outgrown the stage where she kept asking where her twin ran away to. Occasionally she still talked to her imaginary sister, but not near her mother.

"Of course."

---

Christmas came quite quickly and the weather changed just as fast. One moment, the sky was clear and sunny, the next moment, large clouds dropped gallons of snow to the ground. Jolie was content in the warm kitchen. Pennelson Publishing had called to say that her latest book, French Desserts, was selling well and that they wanted to extend her contract for more cookbooks.

While Jolie perfected her latest Christmas cookie recipe, Peanut Blossom Cookies, Jorge took his daughter outside to build a snowman.

"Daddy, you're doing it wrong."

"What?"

"You're packing too much snow." Grace Elise explained. "You need to pat the snow into shape gently."

Jorge stepped back and watched his daughter form a very nicely shaped snowman. Thankfully she accepted his help in putting on the top hat and a carrot nose.

"Now, do you want to learn how to make a proper snow angel?"

"Snow angel?" Grace Elise asked. "You mean an angel like Annie's little brother?"

"Not quite. Here, first you need to lay in the snow."

"I don't think mommy would like this."

"Well, mommy's inside and we're outside. So lay down like daddy."

Grace Elise followed suit.

"Spread your arms and legs like this."

"Like this?" she asked.

"Perfect." He said raising his head to see. "Now, move them really really fast."

Grace Elise giggled as she moved her limbs.

"Now stand up!"

"It looks like an angel!!!" Grace Elise shrieked.

"Come inside you two, before Christmas arrives." Jolie called to her family.

---

The next morning, the family quickly dressed and exchanged thier gifts. Grace Elise made her parents a Christmas drawing which they hung on the fridge. Her parents gave her numerous toys including a tea set and toy oven. Jorge gave his wife a diamond necklace and Jolie gave her husband a waterproof watch.

Later as Grace Elise took Puggles for his walk, the couple cleared most of the wrapping paper away.

"That was a beautiful Christmas."

"It's not over yet." Jorge grinned, pointing upwards to the mistletoe.

Jolie grinned and they shared a kiss.

"I've been thinking," Jorge started. "We haven't been successful with having a baby...do you want to look into adoption? I mean, only if you still want another baby."

Jolie grinned behind watery eyes. "I would love to look into adoption!"

---

I decided to wait one more round to see what this couple would decide to do regarding thier fertility issues. It's funny since a number of residents kept popping up with the adoption bubble and even discussing it with Jorge and Jolie (though there hasn't been a recent adoption). I took it as the community was encouraging them to give a little one a much needed home. So the Dawsons are adopting!

How do you handle family growth in your hood? Does ACR control it? Is it randomly decided by dice?

Welcome Fresher

Fall Semester 2002
Faith is a freshman, Bill is a freshman

Finally, university! Faith and Bill are the first students from Apple Valley to attend Pierce University in over 10 simyears thanks to the great disaster and gap in baby-making. They arrive on campus for a series of firsts...and lasts.

It was the first time Faith and Bill had been away from home, though there was the threat of boarding school for Faith after her pregnancy a few years back. The duo moved into the IBC Hall, which was destined for the demolition block next year. However, since all the other housing available was reserved for non-freshmen or expensive apartments, they had to make do. Thankfully other rising freshmen would be greeted to a new "fresher" dorm come 2003/2004 school year.

Shortly before orientation, Bill and Faith met thier roommates. Faith's roommate, Lisa, was from Highlight City and was also a music major. Thankfully, the two chatted before orientation in order to make arrangements as to what color bedspreads to have so that their room was color coordinated.

When they were not arranging the tiny bedroom, the young women could be found chatting about music. Lisa was a harpist with dreams of playing in a symphony.

"I hear that Apple Valley Metro is really growing, is that true?" Lisa asks.

Faith nods, "I'm really excited. Construction on a concert hall is almost complete. There are rumors that a chamber orchestra will be starting there soon."

"Really? That would be incredible if we were able to play there!"

"I know, I'll ask my boyfriend if he can get any information from his stepmom about the progress."

Faith does ask Bill about Apple Valley Metro's construction progress later that evening.

"Have you heard anything about the new concert hall?"

Bill shrugs. To be honest, he's been like most Apple Valley residents, watching the construction of Apple Valley Metro with anticipation. Not to say that AV Metro isn't open to the public, but the numerous construction projects make it hard to navigate around the small city. The goal is that by the beginning of 2003, most of the construction will be complete.

"I know that the musuem of natural history is complete."

Faith wonders if he even heard what she said. She wonders that a lot as well as other things. Things like, is Bill really for her?

Sure they have amazing dates. He's a sweetheart most of the time, but lately they've been ending thier dates the same.

Not to say she hasn't enjoyed it, but with the pregnancy only a few years removed...she can't help but be cautious. It didn't slow her down, but it did make her think twice.

Sometimes she wonders if they even have anything in common anymore. High school was different, it was only the two of them, but university is brimming with possibilities around every corner. Now it isn't the small rural town and handful of teens.

Bill is thinking the same thing, however not as...politely. He's wondering how it would be if he could score with the chick in his simlish class in the nearby photo booth. Aww...yes, it would be nice, he thinks taking another gulp of his drink.

To be honest, Bill has tried to remember the fact that he has a girlfriend. Especially when his roommate, Grayson, mentions the fact that some students are meeting at the local pub and that the cutie, Alison, has asked about him.

Bill can't help it.

"Did she really ask about me?"

"Dude! Did she ever! Alison is totally into you and she's a junior! Too hot!"

"I know!"

Meanwhile, Faith's prescene on campus isn't going unnoticed.

"Seriously, Todd wanted all the details about you." Shana, head cheerleader and RA of Faith's hall whispered.

"He is really cute...and a junior..."

"Too bad you have a boyfriend. Gosh, if he ever asked about me, I'd snatch him up in a minute!"

"You didn't!" Yazmin whispered.

"I did!" Faith giggled.

"I thought you had a boyfriend!"

"I do, but come on! It was just harmless flirting!"

"Right, but with Todd! You know everyone on campus will be talking about it!"

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

Faith found out that yes, everyone on campus was talking about it. They were also whispering about Bill and Alison's very public makeout session.


"I swear, they were all over each other!" Lisa whispered in the cafeteria. Faith couldn't help but see red. True, she had done her share of kissing Todd, but for Bill to publically makeout with Alison, that was...betrayal.

"Are you going to do anything about it?" Lisa whispers, "'cause here Bill comes."

"Hey."

"Hey," she replied.

"You wanna walk to class together."

"Sure." She said as the entire cafeteria watched the interchange. Who knows what they thought that would see, perhaps they were hoping for a fight, or maybe a country licking, but Faith and Bill decided to talk about thier relationship out of the limelight.

To be honest, the walk was fairly quiet. No words were said, they held hands, both too cowardly to officially end something so comfortable. Thier time in thier classes were not very productive, each lost in thier own thoughts.

They were each other's lifeline in this new world called university and no matter how weak the lifeline, you didn't cut it off too soon. So they ended the night as they usually ended thier nights, together in bed.