Sacrifice, 2004

Givar, winter, 2004
Lyndon is 50, Nicole is 48

It had taken more than a few weeks of calling local residents and petitioning to church members, but Nicole had finally reached her goal. She had raised §800 for Give for a Change. This years funding was destined to go to the Sweeny children for a few items for Christmas as well as some much needed food. Tobi still needed help and even moreso since he was expecting his fifth child with live-in partner, Cameron. Nicole thinks about how much she wanted to have children and unable to give birth, she and Lyndon adopted and fostered children. While staring at a tiny puppy, Nicole wondered if they should do it all over again. Should they adopt or foster another child? They were older, yes, but no where near dead.

"What do you think of adopting another child?" Nicole asks as the couple waits for thier meal to arrive.

"Another child? We just got the twins into university! We just moved into a smaller apartment for goodness sakes. You want to start all over and adopt another child?"

"Sometimes," Nicole mumbled, biting her lip.

"Let's wait a year and see," Lyndon reasoned. "I think once we get used to having an empty house and enjoying the two of us alone again, you might change your mind."

Nicole nodded. She knew he was right. The timing wasn't good for another child, they both had dreams and goals that they wanted to accomplish. Lyndon was starting his private counseling services and applying for a position with the Medical Centre. A child at this time would hinder his counseling sessions. Nicole was busy as well, she was successfully teaching music with the academy and the university had contacted her about a possible adjunct position. She wouldn't be able to accept if they had another child to care for.

Yes, the timing wasn't quite right. At least they could enjoy quiet moments like tonight, laying in the grass and staring at the double moons.

The nest simday, Nicole guided a young woman's fingers over the piano. Occasionally, she taught private lessons when the mood struck her, but she made sure not to keep her schedule too full. As the girl practiced a melody, the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Humphrey? This is Johan Dawson, the Educational Director."

"Hello, how are you?"

"I am well. I was calling to see if you gave my offer any thought?"

"Oh, yes I did. I would be happy to teach a few classes at the university."

"Great, I'll arrange your schedule bewteen teaching at the academy and teaching at the university. You would get a small raise of course, unfortunately nothing substantial at this moment."

"I understand."

Lyndon was making gains in his business endeavours as well. The church was still going well. He made sure to have a rousing sermon each Sunday, be available for weddings, baptisms and funerals and still ensure that the church was well maintained. His small salary from the hood council only streached so far, thankfully his counseling services were augmenting his supply.

Currently his client roster included Grex and Ginger Grey who were still working on strengthing thier marriage. He doubted that he would continue to see the couple as they had rebuilt thier foundation and was headed towards a destiny of joy and success, that's how Lyndon saw it.

"We've been very consistent with our intimacy." Grex volunteered.

"Wonderful, that's very good."

"No, it's been great!" Ginger boasted. "Absolutely wonderful, heavenly, great."

"I don't think he wants to know details, Ginger." Grex assured his wife.

"But it is great!"

----

They're at this strange age of before retirement, but after kids. It's no wonder Nicole wants a baby. I might indulge them with a pet instead.

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.