Stress Me Out, 2005

Hapar, spring, 2005
Jesse is 39, Fiona is 36, Veronika is 7, Jessica and Jennifer are 2

Fiona is drained. She is more than drained, she is empty. Now that she has finally had a chance to slow down, the stress has caught up to her. Her body feels weak, she can barely hold down her meals and her mood has been swinging faster than bats at a championship ball game.

There has been good news since the move to the new terrain. Her twin brother, Fredic, was found hiding out at some cabin. She hasn't spoken to him since Gin called with the news, but Fiona is waiting for him to respond to her message. She wants to know why and how he could just leave his family without a word to any sim. Was he trying to sully the Kent name in the SUN community? Didn't he know the nature of politics? Didn't he know that she would be judged based on his actions? That she would be linked to his misdeeds? Especially since they were twins.

Thoughts of damage control swirled through her brain. Should she make a trip to Palatial Heights to smooth things over with Gin and ensure that the mayor of Palatial Heights knew that Fiona Kent took care of her business even if Fredic Kent didn't? Perhaps she could make a large donation, yes, a donation sounded just right. A donation to benefit children that are affected by stupid actions similar to Fredic's, maybe a scholarship fund, or a camp where the children can express their thoughts to counselors in addition to hiking and eating trail mix.

"You're thinking too much," Jesse said, handing her a slice of overcooked spice cake.

Jesse always knew when she was thinking too much, when the deep lines on her face cracked her skin even more and when her eyes lost that twinkle. He couldn't explain it, but it seemed like Fiona had aged overnight, as if the stress with Fredic and the move to the new terrain aged her by a decade.

He tried to distract her. "Are you used to the new furniture yet?"

The new furniture was the Kent's new dining room, after winning the Favorite Family award, Fiona and Jolie worked together to come up with a design for the dining room. After the design was approved, Keith Dalton of Sim City Furniture, brought it to life. Fiona was more than pleased with the results, the only downside was that she couldn't fit everything in the house.

"I am used to it and I love it. I'm especially pleased that Keith re-released our wedding gift. I didn't know what I would do once the movers announced that they had misplaced it."


"Yes, it will look great at the beach house. Speaking of, you should seriously consider a vacation."


"I would love a vacation. I could take Veronika skiing and the twins could play in the snow. That would be so nice."


"No, that's not what I meant. You should take a vacation by yourself. No children, no husband, no friends. Just you. You need to take some time and re-energize."


"I can't afford to take a vacation right now, things are too busy. Veronika just started the honors program at the academy and I have to monitor to ensure that the transition to the new terrain is going well."

Jesse sighed as he stood up to collect their dishes.

"Not to mention the work that still needs to be done in the metro with converting the old warehouse. I also have the party in a few simdays and-"

"Fiona," Jesse interrupted her and pulled her onto his lap.

She hated when he said her name like that, she knew that whatever he was about to say would nullify her previous words. Fiona might be the politician and the smooth talker in the family, but Jesse knew how to debate her down on matters that were really important.

"I love you," he started, kissing her nose.

Fiona's heart sank. She was in for the lecture of her life, she knew it. She slid off his lap and gave him a look.

"Just shot it to me straight, I don't want a lecture."

"I'm not going to lecture you," he said. "You're not a child, you're a grown woman capable of making your own decisions."

"Jesse, just tell me."

"You've given several reasons why you can't afford to leave for a vacation, but..."

"What?"

"Can you afford not to go?"

*****

It was the morning of the party, the twins were with Suzanna and Lilly Ana, while Jesse and Bradford took the two older girls to the park. Fiona was at the house preparing for the party and ordering sims around.

"Let's get some coffee," Jesse suggested.

"Uncle Jesse?"

"Yes, Laci." He replied, waiting his turn.

"Can Veronika and I play on the playground now?"

"Of course, stay where we can see you."

"How are you coping with Suzanna's pregnancy?"

"It's been well. Suzanna has really good pregnancies, not a lot of vomiting and mood swings and the woohoo has been amaz-"

"Ugh, I really don't want to hear that about my sister."

"Opps, sorry."

After a few moments of silence, "You know, I still can't thank you and Fiona enough for introducing me to Suzanna."

"If it wasn't for that night at the jazz club, I wouldn't be as happy as I am now. I don't think Laci would be as happy as she is now."

"Do you still think about Laci's mother?"

"I can't help but think about her," Bradford answered.

"Every time I see my little girl, I see her mother.

It's like you and Veronika, she looks so much like you that no one can deny that she is your daughter.

Laci is like that. The split image of her mother,

not only her appearance, but her personality as well. It breaks my heart knowing that she doesn't remember her that much, but at least now...at least now she has Suzanna."

"How is your son doing?"

"Bill is doing very well academically, it's his social life that worries us. Well, it worries Fiona. She has eyes and ears all over the place and he has yet to realize that."

"So is he causing trouble?"

"If you call trying to cozy up to your ex-girlfriend's foster sister trouble, then yes. Especially since it's the same ex-girlfriend that he got pregnant a few years ago."

"Ouch, how is the ex-girlfriend dealing?"

"She's causing plenty of her own trouble right now. Apparently, she has a habit of running around the metro naked."

"NAKED?"

"Yea, she-"

"Daddy, watch me!" interrupted the two men.

*****

"I think he's right, you need a vacation alone."

"I knew you would agree with your brother."

"No, this is the doctor side of me talking. You don't sound like you're doing well and you don't look like it either."

"Are you trying to say I look horrible?"

"I'm not saying anything that you didn't already know. You have noticed those wrinkles popping up."

Fiona groaned. "I know, I plan on making an appointment to get those filled in, I need my youthful skin back."

Suzanna laughed. "Even if you get them filled in, you'll still be fatigued and stressed out."

"Not for long, things will settle down soon."

"No they won't and you know it. You'll just find something else to keep you busy. Like this party, you have no business throwing a party so soon."

"But I wanted a party! Besides, it's a small party."

It was a small party, a few friends for some light snacks. Fiona didn't even enforce a cocktail attire dress code, instead allowing jeans and t-shirts for the casual get-together.

"Don't worry, spice cakes are the easiest to burn. The batter is so dark and rich that it's hard to tell if it's done or not. I burned many a spice cake in my past."

"I think I'm going to start trying to bake with applesauce to lower the fat. I'm starting to lose my six pack."

Jolie laughed, "I lost mine a long time ago. It's one of the results of cooking all the time."

"Thankfully, I don't have to cook as much anymore since we hired our butler again. However, I think we might have to look into hiring a full time nanny."

"If I knew what my sisters were up to in Roswell, I'd call them and ask them, but I haven't heard from them in a while. Maybe I could call Jodi in Riverdale and ask if she knows anyone."

"Fiona, you outdid yourself with this party."

"Thanks,"

"But perhaps you should rest more."

"Don't start Bradford, bewteen your wife and my husband, I've had enough. It's a little bit of stress and it will go away soon."

"Oh, touchy, touchy. Are you sure it's stress? You're beginning to remind me of Suzanna when she was first pregnant."

"You think I might be pregnant?"

"I'm not doctor, but you might want to consider it. Especially after all that vomitting at work. The office is starting to think that you have some sort of eating disorder."

"I don't have a disorder, they put too many peppers in the chili at the deli."

*****

"Come again another day!" Veronika sang.

"Com gin nothr ay!" Jennifer repeated.

"Mama, man up!"

"Ok, I'll put the man up. Like this?"

"High! High!"

"Ok, higher."

"Suzanna's here," Jesse said sticking his head into the small room. He couldn't help but smile watching his little girls and their mother.

"It will take me ten minutes and then I'll be ready."

Thirty minutes later, the couple stood outside of Green Patina Cafe.

"Sorry it's raining."

"Don't worry, isn't rain supposed to be good luck or something?" Fiona said good naturedly.

She knew that Jesse had planned this date for a while. Getting Suzanna lined up to watch the girls, making the reservations and handling all the details. She wanted to put forth a strong face for her husband.

"What would you like, mademoiselle?"

"To be honest, I know that I would like the tangerine tart for dessert. Other than that, I have no clue what I want."

"Can I order for you?"

"Of course, dear."

"We'll both start with the Liberty Salad with extra blueberries. I'll have the peppercorn kobe steak with sweet corn pudding and eggplant croquette. The lady will have the soft shell crabs with white truffle mashed potatoes and mango squash. For dessert, the tangerine tart as she indicated earlier and I'll have the chocolate mocha brulee."

"Very well, sir. Any wine?"

"No!" Fiona blurted.

Jesse raised his brows. "Um, no wine. Sparkling water will be fine."

"Any reason for the adversion to wine?"

Fiona shook her head and took a sip. "I just didn't feel like wine. Wow, that's a lot of food we ordered."

"Not really, the servings are small here."

"I have to admit," Fiona said when their first course arrived. "Li Yoo did an amazing job with the plans for the hood. I love just walking around Apple Valley and looking at the different views."

Jesse nodded, "She did amazing work, but she also had amazing direction from an amazing president."

Fiona smiled.

"That was my dream, you know. To be president of the SUN Core. To manage and help guide the SUN hoods would have been amazing."

"You would have been a good SUN Core leader, just like your mother."

"Thank you again for planning everything, dinner was amazing." Fiona said as the couple stood under the awning of the Warwick Hall.

"Thank you for making it an amazing evening, without you, it would have been rather dull."

Fiona laughed, "And a strange sight to watch you talk to yourself."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"This is for you," Jesse said pulling a slim envelope out of his jacket.

Fiona carefully opened it. Inside was a first class ticket to Tiki Island.

"Your plane leaves next week. I want you to relax at the beach house and just enjoy yourself."

Fiona didn't know what to say, so she simply showed him how thankful she was.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too." He replied, "I want you to be around for a long time."

"I will,"

"You better take care of yourself, then. I need you."

"I will."

---

Whew-ok, long!

Fredic has been found! Fiona is pissed that he deserted his family and possibly tarnished the Kent name.

Every sim that talked to Fiona talked about skiing and travels, so I took it that they were urging her to take a break.

I'm not sure what's going on, but when I zoom in close to Fiona's face, she looks so old and tired. Like her face is straining with all the stress. Maybe it's her make-up or something.

Do your sims get stressed out? How can you tell? What do you do for them to help them handle the stress?

Combined Terrain, Part 2, Hood Decor

Once the buildings are created, I then start adding hood decor. This is what makes the hood come alive. In this view you can see the lighthouse, old pond and rocky cliffs. You can also see the farm fields and vast amounts of green space.

You can start to see Apple County come to life with it's urban center and rural area. The aerial view allows you to see to the far edges of the hood, such as Lady Starr, the waterfall and the trail along the coast. Let's have a closer look.

The Apple Dumpling Children's Park. The addition of the carasoul near the trail emphasized that this it the kid zone.

Here is the Simonian statue flanked by the visitors center and Alisa Crawston Park. The statue and courtyard are hood deco, so no up close and personal visits just yet. The information sign and entrance to the wooded area are also deco...I wish my sims could go back there.

We're now entering Apple Plains. The community garden is completed and ready for volunteers to come and plant the new seeds. Rural farm deco emphasize the small town feel.

A quick trip to Apple Valley Metro, or "The Metro" as residents call it. Some parts of the metro are not a sight for sore eyes, instead some residents wish that these areas could simply disappear. Maybe in the future they will, but right now Fiona has her hands full with other projects.

Here's a nicer area of the city, at least the recycling bins are clean and there's even a bus stop for those late night taxi cab rides for when the walk is too long. There are no cars allowed in Apple County, except for taxis, social services vans and emergency vehicles. Residents walk to their destination which allows for some creative city planning.

A view of Pierce University. The campus is pretty much self contained on one lot, but the students enjoy a view of the coast and Lady Starr.

On the other side of the island sits Li Yoo's baby. She hasn't revealed much about her plans for the bay, but residents are excited to see what she has in store.

---

How do you make your hood? Do you try to have the hood complete before moving sims in or do you allow the hood to grwo over time with your sims?

It's Llama Season

Haper, spring, 2005
mini-updateTo describe Tobi as upset might be exaggerating it a bit. Perhaps greatly annoyed would be a better way to describe him. It's the big game of the season Llamas vs Bunnies and he had a big party planned. Plenty of chips and dip and ice cold refreshments. The kids and the girlfriend were away and it was man time!

Except all the men couldn't come. Julio Wilsonoff declined for obvious reasons, Jorge Dawson had to help paint the kitchen, Johan Shazad had babysitting duty, Bradford McMillian was away on business, Antonio Herendez didn't like sports and Sazo Warwick was still out the country. That left Jesse Kent. That wasn't a bad thing, but Jesse decided to bring a friend. That friend was Grex Grey.

Maybe Jesse couldn't feel the tension in the air, but Tobi could. He was sure that he was over Ginger, he knew that Cameron was it, like three bolts of lightening.

"I don't understand women." Tobi starts. "Cameron calls it nesting, getting ready for the baby, but to me it's just expenses after expenses. Does the baby really need new paintings in the living room?"

Jesse laughed. "Fiona was the same way with the twins. However, she just dropped the simoleans and had people look at the design and do all the work."

"Ginger and I are still working on our house."

"SCORE! Go llamas!"

"That's right, you two purchased that large fixer-upper in Apple Plains. How is that going?"

"It's going along better well. We working on restoring the floors right now. You wouldn't believe what thirty plus simyears of dirt can do to wood."

"Apple Plains is pretty safe, right? I rarely get any complaints or calls from that area."

"That's because there's hardly any sims that live out there. No burglar wants to even make the trek to the country to steal, what? A bale of hay?"

"GO LLAMAS!"

"I wouldn't mind the extra space of living out in the country," Jesse added. "Far as raising children, there doesn't seem like a better place to do that than Apple Plains."

"Raising children is so easy here in the Metro." Suzanna commented moving about her kitchen.

"I agree. Everything is within easy walking distance and all sorts of events happen here."

"Thank goodness we're close to everything, Laci has been itching to go ice-skating. We should take the kids out for a play date."

"That would be nice, especially since once we deliver we won't be able to get out as much."

"Tell me about it. I'm taking some maternity leave from the clinic for a bit, but I can't stay away too long since I have plenty of babies and moms to take care of. I think that something is in the water, I have been getting plenty of questions from sims wanting to start a family."

"I guess they figure that now is a good time."

"I suppose, but can you imagine the baby boom if all the residents have at least one baby within the next three simyears?"

Cameron was interested in baby booms, however not from a medical point of view, but environmental. How would the increased population strain the natural resources of the land. Those questions often plagued her when she was cooking or idly walking to work. She was seriously considering changing professions.

The newspaper was nice, but checking facts was only so interesting. She was itching to move on to other things. Things like nature and the environment. Every simday she searched the paper looking for that elusive job. No luck yet, however Cameron could still use her contacts to find something soon.

"Grilled cheese for dinner? Isn't that something like for lunch?" Ping complained, pushing his sandwich around.

"Why can't we have ice-cream for dinner?" Simora tagged onto the complaining.

"Or cake!" Aaron added.

"Or you can go to bed without dinner," Tobi calmly said biting into his sandwich. He had to admit, the children were right. He wanted more substantial dinners, but he knew that Cameron was tired because of the pregnancy. Even if she wasn't pregnant, she simply lacked the culinary skills to cook anything involving more expertise than spaghetti. Maybe he could ask Jolie Dawson to give her some private lessons. Or would that earn him a night on the sofa?

---

Tobi got the ROS: Throw a sports party at the house.

Cameron only has maybe three cooking skill points, so dinners are pretty blah at their house.

Cameron is a family/knowledge with a OTH of Nature. She's not content with her newspaper job and is telling me that a job in the natural science career would be better suited for her. She just has to find one now.

How often do you throw parties? Do you wait until a ROS or do you have traditional parties that your residents throw?

Unexpected, 2005

Hapar, spring, 2005
Julio is 38, Rebecca is 35, Abel and Amanda are 9

The spring air is still chilly, but that doesn't stop Abel from playing outside in his shorts. He was waiting, confident that all would be revealed soon.

"AAAABBEELLLL!!!!!"

He smiled at his sister's cry of terror.

"I'm going to tear you from limb to limb you dirty rotten filthy no good brother!" She screamed charging at him.

"What are you talking about?" he asked feigning innocence.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! You sent stinky Naraj a note saying that I like him! That's not true!"

"You do like him."

"I do not, you dirty rotten stinky potty head!"

"Then why did you say so in your diary?"

"You read my diary! I'm telling mom!"


Decade calmly stepped out of the way of the running twins. He knew from their tones that now wasn't a good time to while for a belly rub, instead it was the perfect time to start chewing the brand new flowers.

Thankfully, by the time Julio arrived home, the issue was settled with the twins. Abel had written a note of apology and was on a strict punishment-no TV and he had to do Amanda's chores for tonight, which meant clearing the table and feeding Decade.

Amanda was feeling a little better, still betrayed that her brother found her diary, but a good swing around the front yard was enough to cure that.

"Abel, you shouldn't be so mean to your sister." Rebecca scolded.

"Well, she told Myra that I liked her."

"Every sim in the hood knows that you like Myra, sweetheart."

Abel blushed.

"Yea...she's so pretty..."

"How's the little one?" Julio asked, putting his work items down and giving his wife's belly a pat?

"Doing well, a bit active today, but otherwise no gas or acid reflux and the mood swings have been minimal."

"That's always good to hear."

****

The next simday, Rebecca finally sat down at the urging of the women surrounding her. She had been planning a casual mommy group for a while. She wasn't the type to sit around and discuss diapers and pregnancy jokes, but Julio had been encouraging her to expand her horizons beyond her financial discussions.

"Ugh, I feel like I swallowed a beach ball. I can't see my feet anymore, I can't bend over and forget trying to unpack. Thank goodness I can still do my job, otherwise I'd go crazy."

"How is your new job, didn't you change duties?"

Suzanna nodded. "I'm now in charge of all the obstetrics, gynecology and pediatric care. Basically I take care of all the pregnancies, deliver all the babies and care for all the children in the hood."

"I couldn't do that," Cameron spoke up. "It's bad enough trying to keep up with the newspaper while being pregnant, I can't imagine delivering babies while being this huge. When are you due?"

"This summer I can't wait until I deliver this baby."

"Do you know the gender yet?" Nicole asked.

"I think it's a boy, but Bradford thinks it's another girl. We're going to be surprised at the delivery."

"Julio and I both think we're having a boy. Call it mother's intuition, but I know it's a boy."

"I think Jorge wouldn't mind having another boy. You know his mother had five boys, I don't know if I could handle five boys running about my house."

"Me either, excuse me for a moment." Rebecca said standing up.

Her stomach had begun to ache and cramp, perhaps it was the nachos she had earlier for lunch. By the time she reached the bathroom, a severe pain swept over her. She recognized the pain, but it was much too early.

"Quick, call an ambulance!"

---

Abel pulled the ROS - "Pick silly fight with sim of highest LT "

I have no idea why Rebecca went into labor early, maybe I set her pregnancy to the wrong trimester, who knows. But the baby isn't due until late summer not early spring.

Have you ever experienced a life changing event in your game when you least expect it? A baby born during a party? An unexpected death? A birthday spent alone in the bathroom?