Chapter 2.5 | Chapter 3.2

Okay, I’ll be completely honest here.. I struggled getting ready for this generation. Mostly because I’m still in testing mode, and part of my concern is making sure the challenge is playable through all the generations. Which isn’t going to be an easy task. Now, if you’ve read ahead, you have a sense of the next couple generations after this one, and I won’t go into details so as to avoid spoilers for those who want to avoid them… but it’s going to be important that everything you’ve worked for (wealth and house value-wise) is able to be brought with you so you can progress through generations. This being said: Sims 4 does not make it easy to do just that without taking the entire family with you. So, I’m adding to the main rules directions on how to move from generation to generation. Obviously, I didn’t do this before this generation, so I’ll forfeit the work done on the first house.

Moving from Generation to Generation: Use the phone, select “Move Household”, then move the entire household to the next lot. When prompted, click to sell all furnishings. Move to the next house/lot and hit pause as soon as you load. Go back into Manage World, and click “Manage Households”. Choose the family in question, and click the button with the two arrows – to transfer sims. Create a new household on the right and move all but your heir to this house, leaving the money alone. This will prompt you to create a new household with no funds. Say yes. This will leave your heir alone in their new home with all the work you’ve done intact. One further note: if you’re like me, you don’t want to leave your old family “high and dry” as the saying goes. Take your relatives, and Move them back into the old home. While moving, it will show that you can’t afford to move them in. Fix this by opening the cheat code window, typing in “testingcheats on” then “freerealestate on” – and wa-lah, the lot will be purchase-able. Once they’re all settled back at home, turn cheats back off with “testingcheats off”, load up your heir’s household, and you’re ready to play. This seems like a lot of trouble, I know, but NOT doing this will make the challenge next to impossible to play… so just trust me on this.

Now that all that has been said, I can keep going. Here’s the rules for Gen 3 at the time I’m playing this. Do realize the actual rule page may show different rules – because this is still in testing and they may change. I will not be coming back to edit these to reflect any of those changes.

After finally figuring out how to move poor Matteo into his new house with the “right” amount of funds, he takes a moment to look at the sea.

He then heads forlornly to “explore” his new domicile. He’s sad because he missed his birthday, of course. But he’ll get over it, eventually.

Since we have no servant yet, poor Matty has to make his own dinner. Miraculously, he doesn’t set the house on fire.

He then has a very lonely dinner. At which point, he has to pee… and I figure out I royally messed up the house I built for this generation… I put in stuff that doesn’t work off-the-grid. So I have to fix all of that, take down the “bad” version, and put up a new one. Fun. Then he can pee. LOL.

We buy the retail lot I put next door, and stock it with as close to appropriate stuff to sell as I can find in the catalog. Spoiler: it’s pouring rain… and it’s an outdoor market.

Oh, look, Skyor’s youngest sister grew up.. and is shopping here. Long way from Sulani, eh…?

Aha! One of the teenage girl sims I madeover for spouse potentials shows up. And it’s the one I don’t particularly like. Meet Helle. Just then, the rain turned to thunderstorm, and in fear for poor Matty, we went to meet the rest of the girls at the neighbor house.

There’s also a “mom” and “dad” (although technically they’re only related to the one teen… I’ll explain and introduce the girls next post.) .. and nobody really invites poor Matty in.. so we go home.

We call a young adult we met at the market, and invite her over. He’s flexing his non-existent arm muscles, and I had to take a picture while laughing my rear end off.

We move her in as our chosen “servant” .. and give her a peasant-looking makeover. Her name is Madelyn the Loner. (Loner, Active, ? – and wants to be an actress. Sorry, Maddy.)

Matty needs fun.. so we add a Llama game (because it’s surely been around since then… lol)

While Madelyn gets put to work instantly.

By this time, I’d decided to try flower arranging as our money making skill for this gen (switched from plain old retail..).. and so I re-do the store room as two rooms, putting in an indoor flower garden in the second.

Then we get Matteo busy on crafting. He seems confused by it. Maybe he should have paid attention to his mom’s gardening more.

More laundry. It never ends!

That black lump in the chair is Madelyn – I swear. She set the kitchen on fire as well as herself, so Matteo saved her and most of the kitchen. She had to remake dinner.

We meet my favorite of the girls, Tryphosa… isn’t she just adorable?

I have them do some stargazing until they’re friends.. then I try to do some more skilling and selling.

Spoiler: Skilling works, selling – not so much. I try to sell the flowers at the retail store/market.. they sell eventually – but not for much – and they keep wilting. This is so not working. With everything that keeps going wrong with my plans, I decide to re-think the whole generation rules…. and also to restart the entire generation. I save Madelyn, because I like her – and the teen family. Then I take an extended break while I try to figure out what to do (and to calm down). Yet again. The above rules have been edited for what they’re going to be as of the next post, when I start over, so I won’t be re-posting them next post other than to have a little abbreviated goal box. See you then!

Chapter 2.5 | Chapter 3.2

Chapter 9 | Chapter 11

By the end of my day I had nowhere to go, and nothing else to do but to run to Sonia again. I relayed the rest of my day’s story to her through tears.

“She’s truly gone, Sonia!” I wailed. “I’ve looked everywhere for her. Even her cellphone is disconnected, and all her personal things are gone from her home. I don’t understand how a person can move so fast. I mean – she left all her furniture, but it’s clear from what her landlord said that she has no intention to come back for it.”

“And the worst part is – I just sat there on my cooler as she left, and I said nothing. I didn’t even TRY to apologize. She’s gone. And I did nothing.” Miserably, I broke into more tears, and Sonia quietly patted the couch next to her. I made my way over there and sat down, still bawling like a baby.

“Dušan…” she began haltingly – “I’m not sure what to say.”

She shook her head sadly, then continued, “I had a feeling she wasn’t right for you from the beginning, but I didn’t want to step on your happiness. Now I feel like I should have said something. Anything. Maybe you wouldn’t be hurting like this.”

“But she seemed so perfect! Why did I let myself fall so hard, so fast?” Once again, I buried my face in my hands, but the tears seemed to be drying up.

“Ah, that’s a question we all ask at least once in our lives, I think, Dušan.” Sonia said with a smile.

Then, the smile abruptly disappeared. “I think you have more to worry about in your life right now than a runaway fiance. Aren’t you forgetting a little something about your new diet? How are you going to deal with that?”

“I wish I knew, Sonia. Despite the temptation, I doubt I’ll be feeding off of humans. And I don’t need Vlad to show me how to make Plasma packs. I learned that in my research … I just wish I didn’t have to know. Moot point, I suppose, right?”

“Mroooowll.” I heard behind me, completely interrupting my train of thought. I turned around, expecting to see Prissy. I was shocked to see a black cat, wearing – of all things – a top hat and a neon green bow tie. I stared at him for a moment, wondering if I was just really hungry again and hallucinating.

“Sonia, do you see the cat with the hat and the bow tie??” I said softly, and heard her chuckling behind me.

“Of course I do, Dušan.” Sonia replied, “I’m not blind! He’s been hanging around since Prissy came to live with me. Him and a few of his friends.”

As if on cue, a dirty white cat jumped up onto the cat tree to join the black one. This one ignored me, though. “Mrrroooowllll” The black cat insisted, this time much louder. I got up and walked over by him, never losing eye contact. This was weird. I wasn’t really a cat person, but this cat clearly wanted something from me.

I put out my hand to let him smell it, and he jumped down off the climbing tree and approached me. After a brief sniff, he twitched his tail and ran out the cat door that I hadn’t even noticed until now. Blinking in confusion, I stood there for a long moment, then turned back to Sonia with a sigh.

“I don’t know what to do now, Sonia.” I said, miserably remembering the sight of Alex’s crumpled form at my feet. “I thought I had everything worked out. Now it’s all a big mess.”

Sonia stood up and came over to me, taking my shoulders in her hands. “Never fear, Dušan,” she said, “You will figure that out in time. You will, perhaps, even forget Alex. However – you should never forget the lesson that she taught you.”

I sighed, and looked away. “I don’t think I’ll be forgetting her. At least – not any time soon.”

Noticing that the sun had gone down, I suddenly realized the time. Sonia was probably exhausted. “I should go.” I said, and turned back to her. “It’s getting late for you.”

She smiled, and patted my shoulders one more time. “Yes, it is. But remember, you are welcome here at any time of day or night, my friend.”

After giving Sonia a quick hug, I headed home, thinking furiously to myself. My world had been turned upside down too many times in the past couple of days, and I felt disoriented, like the snowflakes in a snow globe after it’s been shaken violently. I was so befuddled that I apparently couldn’t even start a fire in my firepit without lighting my arm on fire. I quickly put it out, and tried again.

Something about sitting by a fire is comforting, and even though there was no real reason to have it lit – it’s not like I needed to cook dinner or anything – it made me feel better. I pulled out one of my limited supply of Plasma packs and drained it, then sat pensively looking into the fire. After a while, I realized how tired I was, and I extinguished the fire carefully and climbed into my tent.

The next morning, I tried to go back to my routine. Gardening, painting, saving money for my house. Because I truly didn’t want to live in a tent forever. However, I had forgotten one small detail.

As the sun rose in the sky, and the clouds moved away, my skin started smoking. It felt a little bit like the worst sunburn you’ve ever had. There was no way I could stand outside and paint all day like I had been doing. I retreated to my tent for a while, trying to figure out what to do – at least in the short term. My thoughts finally turned to the Windenburg library – and I made up my mind to go and expand my knowledge of vampires. I was going to need to know more now – a lot more.

By the time I got to Windenburg, a massive thunderstorm had rolled in. At least my skin isn’t burning, I thought wryly and headed inside.

After finding the section on vampires, I settled in to read… only to realize I had an audience.

“Are you Dušan Bratan – the artist??” the young boy asked.

Sighing, I put the book down. “Yes?”

“Can I have your autograph!?”

Inwardly, I sighed in relief. At least he hadn’t taken one look at me and noticed that I wasn’t human or something. I reached out and took the pen and autograph book he held in his hand. Smiling in the least threatening way I could, I quickly scribbled my name and handed back the autograph.

Thankfully, this seemed to mollify the boy, who ran to a woman I suspected was his mother, jumping about with excitement.

I turned back to my book, and lost a few hours in reading. I found out a little bit more about vampires, but nothing hugely exciting. I had a feeling that I was going to have to learn how to be one from an actual vampire…. and there was no way I was going to approach Vlad willingly again.

Sighing deeply, I put the books away and returned to the chair, wondering what to do next. The question of the ages, I suppose. The storm still raged outside, and the after school crowd seemed to have dissipated. It seemed that not many other people were out and about, braving the weather.

Looking around, I noticed that one of the library computers was available, and it occurred to me that I should check on the status of my house permits. Surely I had gotten some sort of answer by now?…

I sat down, typing in the password to my email, and scanned through the junk mail. Unfortunately, there was nothing from the city. And there was nothing from Alex, either. (I mean – I had to check. There could have been something…)

My stomach chose that exact moment to remind me that I needed to keep myself full, so I signed out of my email, returned to my chair by the window and pulled a plasma pack out of my pocket. As I started drinking, I heard a loud gasp beside me. A red-haired woman was sitting in the other window seat, staring at me in horror. In confusion, I stared back, then I glanced down. That was when it dawned on me that my snack didn’t look anything like something that was consumable by humans. Embarrassed, and, yes, a little afraid at being found out, I left the library as quickly as I could. I finished my snack on the way back to Forgotten Hollow, glad to see that my new enemy – the sun – was going down.

In the dark, I took care of my garden and my bees, and stared miserably at the half finished canvas on my easel. There was no way I could paint in the dark. How was I going to survive if I couldn’t paint. I needed that house. At least I had plenty in savings now, but I really didn’t want to have to spend it on everyday expenses.

At a complete loss, I finally crawled into my tent, and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, I checked my mail. … And yes! There it was. A note from the city.

I stared at the letter for a long moment, rereading it several times. Things just couldn’t get any better, could they?! My anger started bubbling up inside me slowly, and I don’t know what I might have done if Sonia hadn’t chosen that exact moment to walk by my campsite.

“Dušan! What’s wrong?” she asked, immediately concerned.

Wordlessly, I showed her the letter. She read over it, then frowned. I walked to my tent, and pulled out the copies I had of the house plans and the application. Everything was filled in, the plans were complete.. there was nothing wrong with them. Both of us were baffled. After a long conversation, the only thing we could figure out was to re-contact them, to try again… but to do that, I would need to go back to the library. And I wasn’t ready to do that yet.

I lit the fire again after Sonia went home, and sat there miserably. Poking at it with a long stick, I sat there most of the next night, lost in thoughts that kept going in circles. I couldn’t help thinking that I must have made the worst mistake of my life – moving here to Forgotten Hollow. At the same time, I still wasn’t ready to give up on rebuilding my mother’s legacy. There had to be something I could do….

---

Blooper:

Mid-conversation at Sonia’s house, one of the stray cats attacked her. And yes, the cat with the hat really did just show up out of nowhere and interrupt the conversation.

Chapter 9 | Chapter 11

House 012 Chapter 4 < | > House 012 Chapter 6

First, we check on our house goals:

House 012 Building Goals:
3 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons (42k)
House 012 Generational Goals:
Complete the Friend of the World aspiration
Have The Drifter Declare another Sim an Enemy
-Then raise the relationship between The Drifter and their Enemy to BFF (good friends)
Have The Drifter Engage in and WIN 5 fights (3/5)
-Each win must be with a different Sim opponent
Produce and raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage (child)

Four weeks until we’re done. I plan to get at least one week done in this post. (I get two). The first thing that happens Is Tracey’s birthday – and she grows up just as cute as her brother was.

She rolls charmer. And on that note, it’s time to go pick some fights.

I swear, this old lady looked at us sideways. 🙂

The gardener (not hired by us, though) looks pretty shocked at the whole thing.

… But at least we win.

… And then, I need one more fight target, and he’s here.. so we pick on another elder.

Not sure it was fair to target two elders, but that’s ok. We win this one, too.. and we’re done with fights.

Hmm. I need to finish decorating the house. Poor Tracey’s room is still drywall.

Our second to last goal. (The last being raising the heir).. and our enemy is now our BFF.

Sione really is a good Dad. Although there was one point this week where Lyric was at work and he couldn’t figure out how to change Tracey’s diaper. But we’ll excuse that.

Meanwhile, Lyric like to complain about taking care of her family all the time. I mean, she’s just making dinner… and she’s all dramatic like this.

Sione .. you COULD clean that mess up instead of standing around grinning to yourself.

At least Jax is being useful. Thimble is well cared for in this house. And I bought him an anti-aging treat, because we wouldn’t want to lose him!

Dear lord, Sione.. don’t throw the toddler out of the house!

I realize I need a second bathroom, so I add it and finish decorating. This is the value I end up with. And the second kid’s room isn’t upgraded yet!

Lyric, that’s not really a good spot for reading a story. Poor Tracey can’t even see the pictures!!

Time to teach Jax about astronomy. Which, apparently, triggers them to Stargaze. Kinda cool.

A whole week has passed, and it’s time for Tracey to age up. In her shades, of course.

… And she rolls Loves Dogs. Hrm. Sione loves them, too.

She’s really cute!

.. And here’s her room all upgraded.

… Yup. I called for a dog. A little German Spitz named Prissy. She turns out to be Friendly, Adventurous, and Hunter. All good traits. Not that I would have sent her back for bad ones – but hey. Good ones are all the better!

Adopted! (And creepy angry adoption guy kicked out.)

And so we buy some doggie stuff and fit in it where we can. Prissy immediately checks out her new bed.

And, the horse from the table earlier (if you were paying attention).. is as big as Prissy!!

Now that Prissy has moved in, the two Sims I bought the dog for are ignoring it. But it gives me something to have Lyric play with. LOL. So it wasn’t wasted.

The gnomes show up for Harvestfest, get appeased, and sold almost immediately. I’m not sure why they annoy me so much.. LOL. But they do.

Bet you can’t guess what I was taking the picture of…

.. Because it was clearly not the Sims in the background.

Lyric doesn’t really like participating in family dinners. She cooks, then sits on the couch while everyone else eats at the table.

I do make her interact with her kids, though. At least for homework and manners and volunteering and stuff. Gotta get those traits.

Prissy grew up!

… I love her so much. You be you, pupper.

Lyric hardly has to be told twice to take time out for the dog, at least.

The kids, however, are pretty much left to their own devices unless I intervene.

Sigh. Sione.. can’t you see that Lyric is making dinner already? (He’s addicted to Salsa and Chips.)

At this point, the dog has almost all of her tricks learned, Jax has his “A”, and I’m just waiting.

And watching everyone … proof that Thimble is still well cared for. Usually autonomously.

Finally!!

… How did I manage to hit the jackpot on traits? I can almost guarantee the third one when we get it will be bad. Like Unflirty.

HAHAHA.. What a face, Jax.

Smile, you’re the heir, buddy! (And he’s definitely going to be a heartbreaker!) … So where does that leave us? .. 13 days of torture while we wait for Jax to age up. Because everything else is done. So… I will probably speed three through the next play session and try to get it done in one chapter. In the hopes that the next house is more interesting. I already love Jax, though, so that’s a bonus!

House 012 Chapter 4 < | > House 012 Chapter 6

Chapter 2 Interlude 1 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.12

Generation Two: Brown

Appearance: Brown hair, unkempt clothing style
Traits: Loves Outdoors, Loner, Child of the Island
Aspiration: Beach Life
Occupation: Conservationist
House Goal: 20,000 worth

(A/N: This post marks my halfway point for posts goal for Simnano, and I’m way past halfway on words!)

A Great Weekend

---

The school week was over, the house (and the kids) were clean, and it was promising to be another gorgeous evening in Sulani. Unbeknownst to me, Aleki was making plans. You see, I had forgotten it was Love Day – but he hadn’t. In the solitude of his office, he made a quiet call for a nanny for the evening. He then snuck upstairs and got changed.

He then approached me in Maricela’s room – where I was playing with her at the dollhouse – and surprised me by asking me on a date. Of course I was immediately concerned about leaving the kids behind with Mari being so little still, but he had timed things perfectly. The doorbell rang and the nanny was here.

I hurried upstairs to get changed while Aleki squared away all the instructions with Ms. Ausage. Obviously, I had to double check that she had all of the details she might need to know, but she seemed to be on top of things. You can’t blame me for being over-protective and worried, though – it was the first time Aleki and I had left the kids with a nanny.

I hadn’t bothered to ask where we were going, because – quite frankly, my thoughts were still with the kids – so it was a pleasant surprise when we arrived at the local seafood restaurant. He presented me with a rose, and an obviously rehearsed little speech. Maybe even a little over-rehearsed, but it was still sweet. After all this time and all those kids – he still had a romantic side.

Aleki went inside and requested a table, while I said hello to my sister-in-law. Apparently Aleki hadn’t been the only one to have thought about Love Day for his sweetest.

We ordered some white wine and the Trout, which sounded delicious, and made small talk while we waited for the food. Most of the chat was about the kids, of course, but I certainly didn’t mind. Between the kids and the environment, I’m pretty well easy to please with favorite topics of conversation.

My nephew, Barry (in the pink) was also there, so I waved at him across the room. I didn’t notice who he was with, though, because just then our food arrived.

The trout was delicious, and the wine a rare treat, which I heartily enjoyed.

It was fully dark by the time we finished our meal, and even later before we finished our conversation and paid the bill. The night breezes were sweet with the scent of tropical flowers, and the restaurant was still crowded.

We made our way outside near the archway where we’d gotten married, and lit the bonfire. We cuddled by the fire as we watched the embers die out, and just enjoyed the quiet of the evening.

With one last kiss, we admitted it was time to head back home to relieve the sitter, and wrapped up the evening with a boat ride home. It was one of the few times I’d actually used the boat I’d been given as a promotion bonus, so both of us were a little rusty on the sails, but we made it home safely. I hurried inside like a worried mother duck while Aleki agreed to furl the sails and anchor the boat.

Of course everything had been fine, and the kids had seemed to hardly even notice we were gone. Jayce and Kali had finished their homework, Mari had had her bath and gone to bed early. By now, even Jayce and Kali were asleep, and I tiptoed in to give both a kiss before retiring for the night.

Saturday was a lazy day spent at home for everyone, and I had time to go do some more photography dives. Jayce played on the dollhouse, Aleki worked on a commission, and Mari was busy with her blocks.

Kali – of course – was busy drawing more pictures for an already full refrigerator door. She definitely got her love of art from her Dad, and despite wanting to work on her Mental skills, she almost always defaulted to drawing or making crafts on the activity table.

Sunday – my birthday – dawned clear and bright and I took some personal time off work. We packed up a picnic basket and headed for the local beach in Ohan’ali Town, something we should have done more of in the past.

After arriving, almost everyone scattered to do their own thing. The children played on the swings together, Aleki went for a dip in the sea, Mari found a sandcastle to stomp on – and I went to check on the local wildlife. I guess I can take a day off work, but still never forget who I was.

The reef was healthy and vibrant, and a pod of dolphins (not Squirt’s pod) were in the area hunting for lunch. The leader took some time out to chat, and allowed me to pet him, although his young ones kept their distance warily.

By the time I got back to the beach, Kali had corralled little Mari into actually building a sand castle, and Jayce was playing with a toy dinosaur he’d brought from home. My stomach reminded me that it was past time for mermaid lunches, too, so I headed to the picnic area and set about grilling the chicken we’d brought.

Meanwhile, Aleki had discovered a treasure trove of seashells around the beaches, and was refilling the basket we’d brought with the bounty. It would turn out to be worth a couple thousand dollars, not including the specimens we kept for our nick knack shelves at home.

Kali ate her lunch quickly, and excused herself to go take a swim. Somehow, despite the fact it was a weekend and a beautiful day, the beach was practically deserted, but I didn’t have to worry about Kali’s swimming skills. We are mermaids, after all.

Lunch turned out amazing, and I sat around chatting with some locals who were interested in Island Conservation. Or – rather – I got them interested in it.

The sun was setting by the time we packed up to head home, and I was officially an adult. I didn’t even mind the fact that I hadn’t gotten a cake and candles to blow out, because the day had been perfect just as it was.

The kids were practically asleep before little heads touched pillows, and they slept soundly through the night for a change – even little Mari. There’s nothing quite like a busy weekend to wear one out – but I don’t think any of us minded.

Chapter 2 Interlude 1 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.12

Chapter 2.4 | Chapter 3.1

An abbreviated version of our goals for this generation:

Yup. We’re done. And after putting quite a bit of thought into it, I decided it was ridiculous to wait to start the next gen until young adult if kids can move out at teen still. So I updated the rules. … Which means that we have literally 8 days left until the next generation starts. Or about that. We do have to wait for Matteo to age up on his own, so it’ll be slightly longer.

Since we have nothing better to do, I have them playing the.. um.. ancient game of Don’t Wake the Llama quite a bit this week. I mean, it’s just a bunch of sticks and a carved Llama, right? No technology needed.

Thalia spends a lot of time with Maliyah – possibly because everyone else is playing with sticks.. or perhaps it’s because she’s always low on social. Thalia, that is. Mali is fine on social. Still – a cute interaction.

Family dinner, part one.

Part two. This is where they usually eat. Sad, but it’s the easiest.

After dinner, Marl spins herself up to Adult. Don’t worry, sweetie, you’re still gorgeous. *grin* .. Oh, and I was waiting to see if the last Try for Baby worked. Apparently not, since she just aged up.

.. Which means that, since Skyor needs “fun”.. we’ll have to Try for Baby instead of just Woohoo.

I finally remember the bees for a change.

Ah, yes. The old “mopping the mess that isn’t there” trick. Very nice. Thanks for helping, Matteo. I think.

Wait. Seriously. There’s nothing there. Matteo just cleaned.. nothing. And now you are. And I SWEAR the toddler didn’t make another mess in between, because Mali is SOUND ASLEEP. Sims are weird.

It occurs to me that I could save up some more money for future generations. So Skyor goes on a marathon bathtub spree. Again. Do you think he’s sick and tired of carving bathtubs? I would be!!

Marl: “.. Um.. guess what, Skyor. We’re expecting again.”

Skyor: “… Whaaa?”

Marl: “.. Yup. You know. Nooboo. Soon.”

Me: *facepalm*

Hey, technically, you chose to wash laundry yourself. Don’t complain to me!

And, yes, I know Thalia isn’t doing it. She’s doing what I told her to do – try to sell some of those concoctions that have been sitting there for a couple weeks.

Midnight visitation again. Spoiler: talking to it actually works for a change. But the other kids are all still upset and wake up the parents. Sigh.

Thalia taking care of little Mali, again.

One word: EW. I send Skyor over to fix it. This picture plays into the next one, so it’s not just to show a nasty toilet. LOL.

SEE?? Is fixed. And that puddle is not all because it was broken. Poor Marl doesn’t make it literally around the corner from her bedroom and pees herself. Sigh.

The next day, we get that orange message again – it’s baby time!

Welcome to a little girl – Anaya the Sweet.

!!!!! How cute are those! I’ve never seen them before!

Mali: “Why do I gotta wait to be big like you!?”

Matteo: “Because ovens and cakes aren’t invented yet!”

Okay, finally. When I least expected it, of course. Poor kid got Gloomy, though.

Luckily, she makes up for the “bad” trait with adorable looks. I love her.

The bubbles flying always crack me up. Thanks for your hard work, Thalia!

Um… Mali.. why are you resting up here??

Me: “Oh CRAP!”

Goes in an gives her an actual bed. Oops.

Thalia and the kids playing while Mom gardens. Who needs fun motive when you’ve got a big garden?

… Ummmm… oooops. Guess that last TFB was a bad idea. We’ve got only around a day to go. Now I have to decide whether to wait to move Matteo until the baby is born so I can name it.. or whether to go back later and rename it. Sigh. Awkward.

Samara gets too sick to “go to school” .. she wasn’t able to go anyway, game. =P But thanks for the day off!

See? I told you she was sweet. That was a random roll!

… Except she looks Evil instead. And Poor Skyor looks like he’s utterly done with kids. I can’t blame him. It’s not like his whole life hasn’t revolved around them.

Matteo gets home from school on his birthday.

… And to my surprise, gets an A. I never told him to do his homework, either. That was completely on his own! Way to go, buddy. Not that you’re going to use much of your education, but good job, anyway.

Peek-a-boo! I find Anaya just dancing away to her own music in the hallway. How cute!

Skyor playing with his youngest. Considering he’s been busy doing other stuff most of his life, he’s still managed to get level 5 parenting, mostly on his own.

.. That’s quite a crowded bed. LOL. Good thing it’s not actually bedtime!

Matteo gets his new trait and aspiration – which reminds me, I should update the Generation Rules to state what the teen aspiration is for the next generation, so you don’t have to read the next Gen to find out, if you’re trying to avoid spoilers. … Also, time to give Matteo his makeover…..

Oh… oh, dear. LOL!!! The arms persist!! I literally laughed so hard at this, and his eventual makeover, that I was in tears. Probably not nearly as funny to the rest of you, but it really struck my “funny bone”.

Anyway, here’s our heir, Matteo the .. er.. Strong.. and he’s all ready to move out. I will go back and rename his new brother or sister later after they’re born…. because I’m truly itching to get into Generation Three.

.. Oh, and this is how much the family home is worth. Just as an FYI. They have some 35k in household funds, too. See you tomorrow!

Chapter 2.4 | Chapter 3.1

House 012 Chapter 3 < | > House 012 Chapter 5

First, we check on our house goals:

House 012 Building Goals:
3 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons
House 012 Generational Goals:
Complete the Friend of the World aspiration
Have The Drifter Declare another Sim an Enemy
-Then raise the relationship between The Drifter and their Enemy to BFF
Have The Drifter Engage in and WIN 5 fights (1/5)
-Each win must be with a different Sim opponent
Produce and raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage (toddler)

I am.. literally… at the same place I was last time. Except for the fact that I have a toddler heir. Sigh. Maybe I can get some more done this week?

We start with Lyric picking a fight. Because she has to for this house. This fella is more than happy to comply with the plan.

Really – how do they think fights actually work. Feet do not get that high in the air, guys.

Despite how it looks – Lyric wins. That’s fight #2 for our goals.

For reference: I’m calling this fight #3. She’s fighting the Flower Bunny for eggs. I laugh so hard at the fact that eggs are flying everywhere around them.

But she wins. And gets… ONE EGG … for her trouble. Really? ONE?! Ok. To heck with that bunny, anyways.

The week continues on… and then Jax spins into his hot weather outfit and goes to wander outside. And I can’t even. Do you see how cute he is?!

Seriously. OMG. I love his coloring and hair. Maybe there’s a redeeming factor to playing this save right now after all. (Yep, still struggling – but I’m determined to get through this house!)

Just.. oh my gosh. Jax is so distracting!

Okay. We can do this. Back to our goals. We have to befriend our enemy. Sierra is no longer our enemy, we invite her over and work on friendship.

.. Wait. Why did I do this again? Yup, you’re reading the screenshot correctly. I had them Try for Baby again. I mean – it does have to be a three bedroom house. Who else will sleep there?!

Ummmm… WHAT? I am so tempted to say yes. Then someone asks whether it would be bad to lose Lyric. Answer: yes. And I remember that’s she’s pregnant. So unless it’s a race to the toilet, we aren’t going to win. So, sadly, I say no. And mourn the opportunity. I don’t think I’ll be lucky enough to see that pop up again – I’ve certainly never seen it before now.

Hey. You’re not supposed to be cooking. I mean, I know your wife is at work… but there’s food in the fridge. And you better be making some for your son, too….

Chips and Salsa. For One. And he leaves it on the counter. Spoiler: he goes back to get it. No food for Jax after all.

Sierra is back over – and instead of coming to say hi, she’s checking our trash. Rude! However, we do get the relationship up to “Good Friends”. Progress. Finally.

That Charisma skill is the only thing holding us back on the aspiration we need. So we’re working on it. Hence the fact they’re still living in a tiny home, despite the fact that they have plenty of money to build a real house. Jax seems to not know the difference, at least.

Success! One thing to cross off. Finally! – I seem to be saying/thinking that word a lot this chapter. I apologize. But this sim-save just feels like its dragging along very slowly.

This is also when I realize I ought to stuff toddlers into tiny homes more often. An uncontrollable toddler just got Top Notch trait. And he has two days to age up still. Hm. Okay.

Clearly, I worked Lyric too hard. But we got that 10 Charisma, and that’s all that matters, right?

I get her into bed, and she wakes up almost right away. Figures. Baby time! I think I named her Tracey? .. I’ll check when I get in game next time. If I load the game now, I’ll never finish this post. LOL.

So: welcome, whatever your name is little girl! Oh, and turns out, Sione is a GREAT dad. I can hardly ever get to take care of either Jax or the new baby, because he’s on top of their needs nearly 100% of the time.

… Ever take what feels like a really long blink and wonder what happened while your eyes were closed?? I think that’s what my sims are currently doing. They were just peacefully doing their own thing while walking around their tiny home.. then POOF. HOUSE. Okay, so it’s not done. But – HOUSE! So, another pic:

I *may* have gone a bit overboard on the color scheme. But it matches Lyric’s outfit. Or something. Dunno, but I like it. Not something I’d do in my own house, lol, but whatever. Sims is all about doing new and different stuff for me.

Jax doesn’t appear impressed, though. In fact, he seems quite perturbed. OOh big word for the day! *grin*

Sorry for the dark picture – but Lyric comes home from work with a promotion, and my camera zooms to her… apparently that was her new year’s resolution. Scared me for a second, I thought she was dying or something!

Congrats, Lyric! .. Your kid isn’t even a child yet, you have WEEKS left – and maxing a career isn’t even on your to-do list. But you did it anyway. Nice.

Of all the chairs I put in that room to watch TV on. .. THAT’S the one you choose to sit on?! Umm.. that’s for the toddler, goofy. And the toddler always walks to the couch. *roll eyes*

Happy Bday, Jax! Top Notch Toddler here we go. And he rolled “Good”.. not the worst trait, that’s for sure. I can handle that.

Not sure I’m down with the color scheme he chose for his outfit, but he grew up cute! He’ll get his makeover for being heir soon enough. Or not soon enough, as the case might be.

And I’ll wrap this post up with an adorable hedgehog. Because I can. Thimble is always so adorable, and Lyric has a new little buddy. Not sure anyone else in the household has even noticed they have a pet, yet, but Lyric seems happy with it. She keeps getting positive moodlets from it. See you next time!

House 012 Chapter 3 < | > House 012 Chapter 5

Chapter 2.3 | Chapter 2.5

An abbreviated version of our goals for this generation:

We had tons of progress last post, let’s hope things go as well this time!

We start .. with Skyor laying down on the job. Er, well… no, he’s working on Wellness. It just doesn’t look like it. It looks like he’s waiting to be sacrificed.

Oh yeah, and Matteo aged up at the end of last session, I gave him his makeover, and then forgot to show him to you guys. :Blush: … Ooops. Here he is. He’s adorable.

I’m not exactly sure why the pirate boat appears to be after the carriage, but Matteo is definitely yelling for the charge. Good thing his sister isn’t sleeping.

I keep forgetting about the bees on this lot. It’s not like they’re right by the house or anything, so they keep getting left so that anyone who goes to the garden or to swim in the garden pools gets attacked. Oops.

I’m not sure why I found this screenshot so funny, but two of those sandcastles are cowplants.. so, technically, this cow pasture is now stocked with cows… *cracks up laughing again*…

Thalia is such a help. She’s usually very low on fun and social… but the chores around the house definitely do get done!

Samara is just so cute. Here she is learning to talk with Marl – who I’m sure appreciates Thalia the most.

Matteo is keeping himself busy. When he’s not at school – which is awesome that he can go this generation. His sisters will not be so lucky.

More playtime with mommy. I’m not sure why Marl seems to be begging the sky for something, but Samara’s expression is priceless.

A rare break for Skyor from yoga practice lets the two lovebirds spend some time together. And they are – lovebirds, that is – they just don’t always get to spend time together. Using the upstairs table is even more unusual. I tend to have everyone eat in the kid’s room. Yep… lazy Watcher.

I catch Matteo taking out the trash by himself. What a good kid!

This is proof that Skyor is no longer upper-arm challenged. He actually looks like a “normal” sim now. WOO!! There’s hope for Matteo, yet.

Oh, goodie. Clingy.

And she immediately runs over to “play” in one of the indoor plants. Never seen a toddler do that before, but it looks like she’s fighting with it. Weird.

Zarra stops by with a gift for Marl, and we invite her in.

What’s the gift? A rare plant seed packet. I didn’t even know that was a possible gift! We open it.. and get a magic bean. Sigh. Useless. Oh well.

Skyor gets level 9 Wellness and can do a fertility massage. So I give it a try, and then while she has the moodlet, I Try for Baby. Spoiler: no baby is had. *frown* Useless massage.

Proof that toddlers don’t give a hoot about monsters under beds. Matteo tries to talk to it, all by himself…

… But no success. Sorry, buddy. Better go wake up Mom and Dad.

Oh, this picture reminds me – our neighborhood is “Green” – so the plants are all “perfect” – and I just noticed sims can “bask in the rays” .. (or something like that). I try it out, and Matteo runs to the cow pasture to worship the sun, getting him an energized moodlet. Darn. I was hoping for inspired. Should have cloudgazed.

Zabala stops by to see Marl, and I have Matteo go meet his grandpa. I guess I was slacking on the family relations… but technically, we can’t travel to see him since he’s out of district, and the rest of Skyor’s family is WAY out of reach in Sulani.

Skyor can now do handstands, too.. but this looks like an interesting pose in that skirt.

… Drumroll…. and we’re done with goals! Just have to get Matteo to grow up now. We’ve got a while to wait, too. Since the next gen doesn’t start ’til young adult – even though teens can move out. I’m not sure I’ll keep that rule.. but for now it stays.

Now, poor Skyor has nothing better to do than sell all his old Herbalism concoctions. Remember this photo: I pay for this yard sale in a little bit.

Samara spins herself to aging and I roll for her trait. Then, I send her into CAS for her makeover. I don’t think that maybe that yard sale had just barely ended, or was close to ending.

… Samara is gorgeous. Love, love, love her!

Then, I go about my normal watcher business.. sending sims to bed, to eat, etc.

… Until I notice that Skyor isn’t moving. He keeps route-failing whenever I ask him to do something. So I have him teleport next to the food. Nope, still won’t pick it up and eat. Then I mouse over him and see this horrifying sight. My game is glitched.. and the last time I saved was, like, two hours ago. I tell myself to stop panicking, and save, quit game to main menu, reload. He’s still stuck. I try resetting him. Nope. Nothing. testingcheats, try again. Nope. I spend five minutes trying to find something about it on google, eventually run into a semi-similar issue on Crinrict’s site… where it says to evict the family and move them back in to fix. So, crossing my fingers, I give that a try. Nope. Nothing. I try completely exiting the game, still stuck. At this point, I’m in full panick mode. Finally, I have him “Split from household and move” .. which for some reason, he can do. He moves out, and I call him back over to re-invite him. Skyor: “Sorry, I’m sleeping.” ACK. *face palm* .. wait til morning, try again. He immediately shows up when I call, and has no “neighbor” tag on his head. He accepts the invite to join the household, and is fixed. When my heart finally stops beating five hundred times a minute… I test out various things, and confirm he’s fully functional again.. although his needs are all reset. But that’s ok. At least we have Skyor back. I save the game.. and consider completely stopping for the night. But – sometime in the moving out and back in fiasco, there are laundry piles ALL OVER the lot. And they’re annoying. So I have Thalia collect them, and I watch Skyor very carefully to make SURE he’s still okay.

He is… and Zarra stops by with Marl’s birthday present. Not that Marl can really HAVE a birthday, since we can’t bake a cake.. but that’s not the point, right? She’ll have to wait to spin up on her own. I honestly can’t tell you what the gift was… I was still calming down at this point.

While Zarra is here – we have Matteo meet his auntie. They get along famously. I keep checking, by the way, and those Try for Baby interactions before I moved Amir out didn’t work. There’s no cousins. *frown*

Meanwhile, Samara and Skyor were bored, so we tried out the Llama game. Skyor looks upset at winning – which I find hilarious, and Samara gets a sad moodlet.

… Then all the phones except for Skyor’s start ringing. Uh-oh. That’s never good.

Zabala is no more. Aww. And he JUST met his grandson, too. Poor guy. On this note, the piles are now washed, and I’m 100% sure Skyor is fixed.. I decide that no matter how many pics I have, I’m totally done for the night. It’s time to write this post up and do something else for the rest of the night. Sims has given me my heart attack of the night/week, and I’m DONE. See you next time!

Chapter 2.3 | Chapter 2.5

Chapter 2.10 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.11

Generation Two: Brown

Appearance: Brown hair, unkempt clothing style
Traits: Loves Outdoors, Loner, Child of the Island
Aspiration: Beach Life
Occupation: Conservationist
House Goal: 20,000 worth

Kali’s Dilemma

---

Dear Diary:

I don’t know how to write in one of these things. Mama said she uses hers to tell about her day and her feelings, but that just seems weird to me. I guess I’ll just have to try it, though.

So here goes nothing. Today, I went to school. Then I came home and played in the old dollhouse. It wasn’t much fun by myself, so I went outside.

I decided if nobody was around, I’d play in Daddy’s fish pond. I pretended I was a pirate.

I started to get a bad feeling.

Then, a big scary arm came out and tried to get me. I yelled to abandon ship and ran back inside.

Maybe taking a bath would be safer.

I wasn’t going to admit my fear about going back outside, so I played in the toy box for a while.

Then, Daddy helped me with my homework.

…..

Okay, this isn’t working. I’m not very good at this. I keep trying, hoping I’ll get better at it, but it’s hard. I just don’t know what to say. And I need to.. know what to say.

Because I have to grow up to be like Mama. She says I’m the heir to the family legacy. Which is hard to understand. All I know is: when I grow up, I’ll have to leave home.

I mean, I’ll still be in Sulani, but I’ll have to be on my own. Mama said it’ll be hard, but that I’ll do just fine. I’m not so sure. I don’t think I want to be… an heir.

I don’t want to be alone, and I really don’t want to grow up. I wish I had a choice, but Mama says since I’m the first girl, that’s what I was born to do. She did it, and so did Grandma. It’s what our family does. I don’t know why, but we have to. I snuck upstairs last night and looked at an old photo album of my Great-Grandma. The one who found out how to be a mermaid in a scary cave.

She had come from somewhere else, and was brave enough to start over when she was still just a teenager. I don’t know how she did it, and I really don’t know if I’m brave enough. I mean, if a pretend sea monster can make me afraid of Daddy’s fish pond… how can I be the heir??

Oops. Daddy says it’s bedtime, so I have to go, Diary. I guess I’ll write more tomorrow. Mama says that practice will help, like it does with my violin. But I’m not sure I believe her.

Chapter 2.10 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.11

House 012 Chapter 2 < | > House 012 Chapter 4

First, we check on our house goals:

House 012 Building Goals:
3 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons
House 012 Generational Goals:
Complete the Friend of the World aspiration
Have The Drifter Declare another Sim an Enemy
-Then raise the relationship between The Drifter and their Enemy to BFF
Have The Drifter Engage in and WIN 5 fights (1/5)
-Each win must be with a different Sim opponent
Produce and raise The Heir to the Young Adult life stage

This post is going back to just a tiny bit over a week long – and since most of the week was spent studying, there’s not a huge amount of pictures, for which I apologize.

Now, where were we… (Trying for Baby!)

Success! Poor Sione looks a little worried, though. He seems to be thinking “gee why are we doing this now, we’re both still unemployed!”

Halfway through the week, we have Lyric take a quick break from studying and celebrate Winterfest.

I don’t remember what he got, but it wasn’t spectacular. Lyric gets a nice, expensive painting.

Then Santa gives her a London’s Choice stove. I leave it in the family inventory – no sense having either of them starting fires yet.

Uh-oh, it’s that time! (And at least she had the decency to wait until classes were over for the day!)

Welcome, little Jax Rambler. Our heir is going to be a boy again!

Through the course of the week, Lyric gets this…

… then this, just by studying and going to class. Guess that leaves choice of careers wide open for her between Astronaut, Criminal, or Secret Agent.

Sione.. poking at the baby doesn’t help. Change the poor baby’s diaper!

Sione: “What? Did someone say something?”

Somehow I manage to pull a 4.0 while being pregnant. A feat I wasn’t sure I could do. Now if only I could have done half as well when I was in college years ago…

Lyric goes to the graduation ceremony, and sees that guy who was rude to her at the library. Apparently he graduated, too. And what’s up with the other dudes bracelets… I mean, if that’s not an.. interesting.. fashion choice, I don’t know what is. They’re all giving the side-eye to:

…. This dude, who just showed up to cheer all of them on. Weird.. but okay. Happy mascot day?

New Year’s arrives, and I have Lyric make a resolution to get a promotion (since she’s got a job now. I put her in the Criminal career – Boss branch because that was the highest paid job she was offered for finishing her University Degree.)

Look, ma, we have a house now! .. Er.. Sorta. Sione seems to like it, at least. Having a good bed should help, and we’re still able to be within the mid range tiny home for Lyric’s Charisma gains she needs to do for her aspiration. (She’s at level 7 now, I believe)

Sione: “No, you’re not supposed to stir it that way! Go Clockwise!”

Oh, you’re going to complain about how she’s cooking when you have no skill. I see how it is.

Jax rolled Silly. I can deal with that.

And he’s got some really cool genetics. Love that skin tone with the blond hair. Plus, this is a really cute picture.

I buy little Jax the minimum he needs to be a toddler: potty, bed, blocks, toy… and I figure out that the only room I have for said bed and stuff.. is in the middle of the kitchen. I’m just not willing to lose that Tiny home bonus until I have no choice.

Sione: “TOY! Thank you, Watcher!”

Um…. that … wasn’t for.. you. Sigh. *Buys another toy*

At least Sione seems like he’s going to be a good dad. He’s going to be doing a lot of tucking in with Lyric having to work evenings when she’s “on shift”. Not sure where he pulled that toddler book out of, but we didn’t have one before he started reading it. LOL.

Lyric gets home from work – without a promotion because she aged up on her own and didn’t finish her work shift. How rude. – and makes some more fruit salad for the family. It turns out “Excellent” even without Sione’s “help”.

And.. I’ll leave you with Lyric’s little “wall of fame”.. her graduation picture and Magna Cum Laude diploma. She’s officially the first Rambler to go to school, nevermind graduate, and she somehow manages to do it with honors. Way to go, girl!

House 012 Chapter 2 < | > House 012 Chapter 4