House 011 Chapter 4 < | > House 011 Chapter 6

First, we check on our goals yet again:

House 011 Building Goals:
2 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons (k)
*Include a designated party space
House 011 Generational Goals:
Complete the Master Mixologist Aspiration (3/4 done)
Achieve Level 10 of the Mixologist branch of the Culinary Career (lvl 9)
Craft Each one of the following potions:
Confident, Energized, Flirty, Focused, Happy, and Inspired
Raise the heir to Young Adult age and give them the Mean trait

Nothing really changed last week, I was too busy chasing toddlers. So, it’s time to get down to business. We start with Derek getting a sorely needed bath. Blaze doesn’t seem to appreciate the splashing, though.

Ariana, dear, that stuff is for the kids. But I appreciate you actually finding the dining room table!

She misses the “family meal”, though, because a few minutes after she leaves to work on the computer, everyone else shows up.

Except for the toddlers, who eat in the living room. We also seem to have a popcorn bowl issue… lol.

Lyric, don’t think I didn’t see you just destroy that sink. And doesn’t it figure – Blaze is at work so nobody can fix it.

Then I notice that the other bathroom sink is broken, too. No idea who did it.. but at least we still have the kitchen sink.

Wait… what?  Who?

Yup, found him. He’s completely nameless. But apparently was enough to give Blaze a two-day mourning moodlet. Sigh.

Zombies last time.. mummies this time? It seems our heir has a penchant for horror films.

Oh, Master Tinkerer – if only we could invite you in. There’s so much for you to fix!!

Dance party – although Lyla doesn’t seem to be completely happy about it. And the toddlers seem to be missing.

Where are they?… Asleep. Good.

Oh, Lyla, honey, I appreciate the thought, but you’re gonna be there a while…

Well…. we DID have a kitchen sink… Lyric strikes again!

Blaze is down. Trying to get everything taken care of after work was a little too much.

… At least he missed the puddle??

Oh, no. Not again… I still have one toddler and Lyla to get into bed. That dark Sunny Aspect lot trait means I have to put the kids to bed EVERY. NIGHT. Or they don’t sleep.

Sleep replacer. We clearly needed one.

How is it still only Monday?? (Bills arrived)

Um.. Derek.. that’s not really an approved place to eat dinner. But I guess when you’re that hungry, I appreciate you not walking all the way to the living room??

Home from school in a different outfit? We know what that means!

Congrats, Lyric!! (Lyla gets this later in the week, but I’m not concerned enough with the non-heirs to take a picture. LOL. Which just sounds bad.

Blaze is still struggling through to Level 8 Charisma. Still working on 7. This is taking forever!

Conference in the bathroom? LOL.

And a messy dance party..

Lyla is coming home with a B in this photo, but they both RUN in because of a thunderstorm.

Wow, someone actually found the activity table! Way to go, Lyric!

For some reason, Ariana feels the need to work on her non-existent Logic skill. And yes, we’re still struggling through Charisma. But we’re getting closer.

Better get that stereo fixed before they wake up. The whole household will break down if you don’t!

Lunch time with the toddlers. It’s the newest show! *wink*

Finally – it’s that time!

Somehow, we managed to get him to Happy Toddler after all – and he rolled Lazy. Good thing he’s not the heir!

He’s a cutie, though.. even if he does look a bit mischievious.

… Wait.. what?? Again my sims game decides to be weird. I assure you, there’s been a LOT of aging up in this save. Why is it only now getting to this??

Twin # 2… (who doesn’t look the LEAST bit excited to grow up).

At least she got a better trait? .. And no Happy Toddler. Wonder what she was missing.

Deirdre is SO CUTE!! I love that hairstyle. And, Ariana.. what have I said about the popcorn??

We finally have Charisma to level 8 for the promotion. Now we just need Maxed Mixology.

Oh – and since we’re out of toddlers, I get the nursery converted over for the twins. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget the monster lights!

We did it!! Well done, Blaze!

Which means that the aspiration is completed, too.

… And we can start in on making those emotional drinks. (Which drains our bank account – they cost 1000 to make – EACH!)

I swear, I made all of them. He just kept drinking them. And the kids are on TOP of the dishes, so the glasses didn’t stay around.

I actually remember the garden for once. Selling, at least. Now that we need the money again.

Wait.. huh? Er.. okay, Blaze.

The “party area” needed work – now we have a karaoke machine, a guitar, and a microphone. Nobody’s going to use them – but they’re there.

And that deck got a makeover, too. Had to use move objects for the lights, but the hot tub still works. I made sure.

Ariana!! Really?

First of all, that’s the first time I’ve seen her in that outfit. Not sure which one it is, but I don’t like it – looks like she’s walking around naked when I just glance at her. LOL. And second – there’s PLENTY of food in the fridge.. just because Blaze isn’t home does not mean it’s time to try out your non existent cooking skills. (At least it’s a salad?)

A salad that she literally just leaves there and waddles off to the bathroom, instead.

WOO!!! That’s pretty much all our goals done, except for getting Lyric aged up. She’s due to be teen in a couple days – and then those next two weeks are going to be BORING! Perhaps I’ll speed three through them?

And that’s it for this chapter. Everyone’s tucked into bed, and goals are done. I can’t complain! See you next time for some fast aging up. I hope.

House 011 Chapter 4 < | > House 011 Chapter 6

Welcome/Links | Rules | Chapter 1.2

Before I go any farther, I need to introduce our founders:

They are simply housemates at this point. However, that will change.

Anyway: a little bit about this challenge. It’s a modification of the “Through the Ages” challenge by erica180 (linked on the welcome page above). I will be posting the full rules as I get them completely ready, but for today, I’m just posting the first few generations (linked above). The others are in process, but I don’t feel they’re 100% ready to publish yet. Anyway, before I get going, here’s the goals/rules for generation 1:

With all that being said.. I sat down to get to playing. When I started this challenge, I downloaded a neat looking lot, and plopped my new Stone Age sims onto it… never knowing that I had just stepped into a virtual minefield.

To be fair, though, how would I have known that when things started out so normally. A little planting for our garden…

… And Paku starts his “career” as a fisherman. He quickly catches a cowplant berry – which I regret losing. You’ll see why in a moment.

Here’s where things started going horribly wrong. First Utali catches herself on fire…. okay. No worries, she’s just a little singed.

Then, she catches the entire firepit.. on fire. And not just once. As soon as this fire is out, I try to cook again. Only to have the other end table sitting there catch fire and burn to a crisp.

At this point, I’m thoroughly frustrated, and they’re starving and filthy. You can see the evidence of the fires on the ground behind their new stump-chairs.

I send Utali to go clean up, because she needs it…

And have Paku make dinner. Which instantly sets himself, and the campsite on fire.. again. On top of these fires.. they keep having routing failures.. or simply happily clipping their way through oversized rocks. I’ve had enough. I had a save from before I started playing, and I deleted this save and went back to that one. An hour later, calmed down, and with a new, plain ol’ hut I built for them – we get back to playing.

The first thing we do.. is get Utali planting again.

… While Paku.. you guessed it… goes fishing. Spoiler: he doesn’t get a cowplant berry. This time, or the next.. or the next… you get my point.

Originally, I was using the “original” rules, which required one of my sims to learn Wellness. Which made no sense, but I started in on the yoga anyway. Before long, I change up the rules… and no more yoga for prehistoric sims. I delete the Wellness stuff.

Utali cooks a nice…. SAFE… meal. And look, ma, no fires!

They stand around eating it – because – no tables. Stone age. And I’m somehow determined to try to do this without using handiness as a skill. (I wouldn’t recommend it..)

And here’s where the REAL fun starts. Trying for the first nooboo. They get pregnant pretty much right away, although, with no pregnancy tests, I have to wait to find out.

The next few days pass by peacefully. No fires, no mishaps.. and nothing fun to take pictures of, either. I need toddlers, darn-it-all!

Okay.. so a baby will work. Or at least, an incoming one. Ryorg the Wild Child is born. And is, as usual for sims 4.. pretty much a blob stuck in a bassinet. Exciting.

… More exciting.. there’s another nooboo on the way! Paku seems a little worried.

Ryorg ages himself up.. because somehow I completely missed his birthday notice. It’s not the first “forgotten birthday” he’ll have – without ovens, we can’t bake a cake.. so we’ll be waiting for birthdays.

Ryorg playing with blocks with a very pregnant Utali watching over him. Has anyone else noticed that parents no longer actually keep watching?! Oh my gosh, it’s so annoying to me!

This is when I find out that this kiddie pool… does next to nothing for hygiene rating. But I’m still determined to tough it out.

I know THAT face. Nooboo incoming!

… Er…. make that two nooboos. Welcome Arjuna the Quiet (spoiler: she may have been named wrong… ) and her little brother, Yusu the Stoic. I wasn’t expecting twins.. and in complete consternation, I decide this is a good place to take yet another break from these guys. Instead, I go work on the rules some more. And the four generations I originally added… turns into far more. *face in hands* .. Well, if you’re going to do something, I suppose you should do it right, huh?

Welcome/Links | Rules | Chapter 1.2

Chapter 2.4 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.6

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 House Party

(A/N: Welcome to Simnano 2020! I’ll be alternating posting days with this story and my Ramblers family, and aiming for at least 25,000 words for the month. I had so much fun last year I had to enter this year, as well. I’ve been looking forward to it since last year. This is the story I used last year, so it only made sense to use it again this year and get a little farther along in my challenge. Oh, and a note on the challenge, She’s at level 8 in her career, and on the last part of Beach Life aspiration. The house is way over value, too, so I don’t have to worry about that. Things are going well!)

The new baby, Jayce, was keeping us up at all hours. Aleki was so helpful, often being the one to get up with him while I made sure Kali was asleep in the next room. However, I still had big plans to invite the whole family over for a house party tonight, no matter how little sleep I was running on.

While stocking up the fridge for the party, I swear I saw a Freezer Bunny in there, but I managed to convince myself I was just really tired. Babies are hard work!

I finished stocking up the fridge and making breakfast, while Aleki finished connecting our new Washing Machine. Now that we had two kids, there was no way I had time to spend all day at that darn washtub anymore.

After installing it, he started our very first load of laundry in it.. and amazingly, everything worked smoothly. We had debated a while, but decided we liked the way the outside wash line dried the clothes, so we hadn’t bought a Dryer, too. Also eliminated the possibility of fire, which I’d heard was a terrifying possibility with that particular appliance.

We ate a quiet breakfast together while the kids were still asleep, and I headed outside to do some chores while Aleki watched the sleeping babies.

It was a great day for putting the laundry out, luckily, so I got that done, and then went to check on the fish traps. Again, there was plenty to sell and new fish to bait the hooks with.

On the way back inside, I couldn’t resist stopping to finish my beach-combing aspiration. Now I just needed to do some major outdoor grilling – so I was looking forward to trying out our new grill for the party tonight.

The rest of the morning practically flew by once Kali and Jayce woke up. There were diapers to change, bottles to warm up, and potty training to be worked on. Kali was really a great kid, though, and she was so independent that she liked to do most things on her own. When she went down for her afternoon nap, Aleki and I took some time to work on my Logic skill and play a game or two of chess. It was a lot of fun.

Then it was Aleki’s turn for outdoor chores. We had decided it was a good time to spend the 1000 simoleons on getting some cleaner snails for his Koi Garden, so he carefully introduced them, and we hoped that the fish didn’t eat all of the snails before they were able to do their job.

Lastly, he took down the laundry and put it away, while I made all the phone calls inviting the family over for dinner.

After making the phone calls, I finished final preparations by firing up the grill…

.. And making some Kava for the adults. This party was going to be Epic.

As people started to arrive, I chatted with my sister in law, Meilani about our kids and how much fun parenting was (most of the time).

My nephew, Barry, was here, and chatted happily with Aleki while Kali looked on.

By the time everyone arrived, our house was utterly full. Kali seemed to think the party had been thrown for her, and she went around meeting and charming everyone. She wasn’t quite big enough to join in on the conversation, but I have to give her credit for trying.

It was so good to see my Mom and Dad again – it felt like it had been forever, and I was well aware that time with them around was definitely limited.

The advantage to having a family party – usually there’s people willing to help clean up. This is Grayson, Kaleb’s son (my cousin). They grow up so fast!

Kaci and Barry (my brother’s kids) found the playroom, and Meilani kept them occupied while the adults chatted in our new living room.

There were a couple heated games of chess between my parents, and plenty of food for everyone.

By the end of the night, when everyone headed home, even the kids were willing to practically fall into bed. But I think everyone had had a good time, at least. Which was the important part. I slept while I could, knowing Jayce would probably be up before long.

Chapter 2.4 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 2.6

Heir Poll #1 | Chapter 1.8

I finally got around to counting this up… and here’s our results:

Coty: 9 (5+4)
Tyson: 5 (3+2)
Jaxson 3 (2+1)

So, congrats to Coty!!

Chapter 5 | Chapter 7

I was determined to put a possible meeting with the old vampire out of my head for the time being, and I spent the morning keeping myself busy. I most definitely had more cheerful things to think on, and they quickly pushed aside the foreboding. By early afternoon, I had painted a masterpiece, taken care of my garden, and had breakfast. I packed up the painting and took a quick shower – partially because it was mostly cold, and partially because I had places to be.

More specifically – I was meeting Mariko at the city shops to look for a ring for Alex. This was not something I wanted to do on my own… and a trusted friend like Mariko seemed like perfect company for the outing.

I arrived before Mariko, and – wouldn’t it figure – right in the middle of a summer cloudburst. Dodging more lightning strikes than I cared to see, I hurried into the store and began looking around.

I was still looking around when Mariko arrived, and I was just as confused by the selection as I had been when I arrived. Everything was sparkly and pretty – and one pretty much looked the same as the other. How was I ever going to decide?!

“Dušan, are you SURE you want to do this? You practically just met the girl. You hardly know what she’s like, even.” said Mariko, and clearly she was not happy with me. Apparently talking theoretically about Alex being the one and actually getting the ring were two very different things.

“Of course I am!” I assured her, and continued gushing about Alex’s good looks, amazing kisses, and our easy conversations.

Mariko didn’t look convinced, but she seemed to resign herself to the fact that I wasn’t about to change my mind. We turned back to the ring display, and I pointed out a tiny sparkly ring that appeared to be in my budget.

“Um, Dušan – that’s not going to work.” Mariko quickly pointed out some that she was sure were more appropriate, and I cringed at the prices. Mariko again expressed her doubts about the match, but I cut her off and waved one of the sales-girls over.

A good chunk of my meager fortune later, I was still trying to convince Mariko that what I was doing was the right thing.

“Thanks for your help, Mari.” I told her, “I truly couldn’t have done this without you. I promise, I’m not rushing into something that will be bad for me. I know this is the person I’m meant to be with! It may be fast, but it’s a sure thing. Now I just have to convince Alex!”

Mariko didn’t reply, but she gave me a huge hug and we both thanked the sales-girl for her help. I headed home, again dodging the lightning, with a huge smile on my face. Everything was falling into place. If only my dear mother could see me now. I’m sure she’d adore Alex.

On the way home, I called Alex and set up a date for that weekend – and then the hard part began. Waiting. I painted, and gardened – although most of the time was spent at the easel. I had to recoup the price of the ring, after all – but I wasn’t going to begrudge Alex the expense. She was certainly worth it.

Friday arrived, and I nervously waited out front of the Von Haunt Chalet – the most romantic place I could think of when I was planning this whole thing out. By the time Alex arrived, I was a sweaty wreck. Or at least I felt like one. I wiped my hands off on my jeans and greeted Alex by kissing her hands, which seemed to immediately charm her. Breathlessly, she started in about how she was sorry she was late – work had kept her overtime.

I interrupted her, assuring her it was more than fine, and took her hand, pulling her towards the front doors. I showed her around the Chalet, then we wandered out back to the beautiful gardens. The whole time, she kept up a running conversation about her work and the celebrities that had stopped in earlier today – and the massive tips she had gotten from them. I swear, I was so nervous I barely heard a word she said. By one of the fountains, I pulled her close for an embrace, which succeeded perfectly in what I wanted – it shut her up.

“Alex, love, you know how much you mean to me, right? I swear, I can’t imagine life without you.”

“Of course, Dušan!” Alex gushed.

Before she could say more, I handed her a rose, then took a deep breath. I started to say more, but my tongue seemed stuck to the roof of my mouth. Embarrassed, I tried to hide my nervousness with another kiss. I don’t know whether it worked or not, but it helped calm my nerves some – and I quickly took the rush of adrenaline and dropped to one knee.

“I know I haven’t known you long, Alex, but you’re everything to me.”

I fumbled the ring out of my pocket, almost catching it on the small tear in my suit, and held it out to her. “Will you marry me?”

“Oh, Dušan! Look at that RING!” Her eyes lit up as she grabbed it out of my hand. “Yes!”

… And before I knew it, she had leapt into my arms. I only just managed to catch her in time, and I set her back down carefully. We celebrated with a kiss and a sunset stroll around the rest of the gardens before she excused herself because she had to work early.

When I arrived home, the first thing I did was phone Mariko with the news. She congratulated me, but somehow sounded sad. After our earlier conversation, I didn’t want to press for why, so I quickly made the excuse that I needed to let other people know, and said goodbye.

After Mariko’s lukewarm response, I elected to just text Sonia with the news, and I got an elated reply, which made me feel instantly better.

I ate my dinner of some cold granola and yogurt, with my head still in the clouds. I couldn’t believe I had come so far so fast in the last few weeks. I was on my way to becoming an accomplished artist, and now I had a fiance… and two amazing friends. What more could I ask for?

… Other than, perhaps.. a roof over my head?

(A/N: Welcome to Simnano, story two for me. I hope you like this story so far, it only gets better. Next post for this story will be July 5th! This is by far my favorite story-driven challenge I have going now, and the amount of inspiration I’ve gotten for it lately shows. There was no way I could have waited until August to post these chapters!)

Chapter 5 | Chapter 7

House 011 Chapter 3 < | > House 011 Chapter 5

First, we check on our goals so we don’t forget:

House 011 Building Goals:
2 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom home worth at least $50k Simoleons
*Include a designated party space
House 011 Generational Goals:
Complete the Master Mixologist Aspiration (3/4 done)
Achieve Level 10 of the Mixologist branch of the Culinary Career (lvl 9)
Craft Each one of the following potions:
Confident, Energized, Flirty, Focused, Happy, and Inspired
Raise the heir to Young Adult age and give them the Mean trait (child)

Feels like forever since I played this save – and when I load it up, I remember why – I have most of a week with three toddlers coming up. Yikes. And to make it worse, they’re uncontrollable. Thanks, Drifters.

Oh, and this post marks my first post of Simnano 2020 at the boolprop forums. I’m planning to post on alternating days with my Ramblers and my mermaid story, Tails of Sulani. The goal is to post once a day through the whole of July with a word total of at least 25,000 50,000 total. I got 31,000 words last year, so 25k should be a piece of cake, right – 50k will definitely be harder, but I have to start somewhere. I will also be posting some “bonus” chapters of my vampire story, Foreshadowed Sunset and starting a new challenge, that I will debut tomorrow.

Anyway, that’s enough stalling. Here goes nothing….

Not a stellar start, Ariana. Thank goodness this isn’t an ISBI.

I make sure our heir, Lyric, does her homework. (Spoiler: I don’t remember to do it every day this week… oops.)

Ariana makes it to the bed for a change.. and Blaze uses all the tricks he knows while cooking. The maid is not impressed.

… And that’s not the skill we need to max, dearie…. but thanks anyway?

That’s better. But before he gets much of anywhere on the skill, his daddy skills are needed again.

I just adore these kids. Lyla is so CUTE!

Blaze apparently really likes omelets. Good thing, too, because breakfast seems to be all he ever cooks.

Lyla.. you’re getting food everywhere. Thank goodness it doesn’t have to be wiped up.

Lyla is still working on her potty skill – but she’s only got that and imagination that aren’t at level 3 yet. So, we should get Happy Toddler with her.

It’s flower day, but we don’t really have time to celebrate. Poor Blaze is constantly running back and forth between the twin babies and Lyla.

However, whenever he’s off my control for a moment – this is where I always find him. They really love the stereo!

.. Yup. That vampire is still around. Seeing him there reminds me that I can now just say “no” to vampires. I disallow them. We’ll see it if works.

Fussy?!!  Ohh no.

Meet Derek, the eldest twin. And as it turns out, the only kid who got Ariana’s hair color.

Charmer. That’s much better.

And those sunglasses. I just can’t even. What a silly toddler she is.

I get the twins working on their potty skills. Blaze looks like he’s waving the white flag already. I can’t blame him. In reality, he’s complaining he can’t get out the door with both potties there. Which takes me a while to figure out. In a few shots, you’ll see that I move the potties and fix the issue.

Blaze has to take a few of these – luckily we have the points to spare. Because there’s simply no time to sleep with three toddlers and skills to be learned.

The madness that is three toddlers. Ariana is, at least, a good sport about it.

Lyla doesn’t make it all the way to bed. Poor tyke.

Blaze calls in to work on an invisible phone. No way am I leaving Ariana all alone with this mess. (Spoiler: I forget to call “off” the next day and Ariana gets left alone after all.)

Derek gets his first bath, which he desperately needed.

Blaze takes a moment to himself. He’s also the only one I ever see in the dining room.

I really appreciate Ariana helping out, though. She’s been a good mom.

I JUST missed getting a pic of the twins hugging, so you’ll have to take my word for it. It was really cute.

One of the few times this week that Blaze actually gets to lay down. Poor guy.

Ariana, on break with all the kids asleep, finds the computer again. She is the only one ever using the computer. At least for now, Lyric may use it when she’s a teen.

Ariana supervising the horde of toddlers eating clam chowder. That has to be such a mess to clean up after.

Nope – I was wrong. Blaze does actually get some sleep this week. For a little while, at least.

.. Until I make him put out the fire and use his new level 4 in handiness to upgrade it to make sure we’ll have no fires – at least not from the fireplace.

Happy birthday, Ariana!

For some reason I thought she was turning elder. Nope, just adult. Shows how much she’s been pregnant in this save!

I have learned to love this popcorn machine this week. Someone suggested toddlers would grab snacks from this to prevent social services from coming to get them – and they do. What a lifesaver.

Bathtime! Derek is always dirty, it seems.

He looks so much like his mama, though. So cute.

… Just.. please don’t wake your sisters!

Lyric decides it’s appropriate to watch the zombie movie on TV. Twice. In a row. With the proper horrified expressions both time. It totally cracked me up.

She then braves the dark outside to take out the trash. What a trooper.

Ariana decides to take the neglected garden in hand. (Which actually reminded me we HAD one. I had completely forgotten. Which means that I didn’t get any of the income from it, either. LOL. Oops.)

Lyla finally leaves toddlerhood behind.

With decent rolls, no less. Somehow, though, the twins needing food badly caused me to not get a picture of her all grown up. You’ll just have to wait for the next post to see her.

Popcorn saves the day again!

.. I love the little feet you can see on the couch under the mirror. Blaze needs to somehow get another half a skill point in Mixology and two whole points in Charisma (to level 8) to get his level 10 promotion. Hopefully we’ll have more time for skilling as the kids grow up… because as it is, it’s just not happening.

I breathe a huge sigh of relief as I save my Ramblers and move on to another save … that was so stressful! And I have two toddlers to come back to. Hopefully that’ll be easier than the three was!

House 011 Chapter 3 < | > House 011 Chapter 5

Chapter 1.2 | Chapter 1.4

So.. last time, we got the family off to a good start with two toddlers. This time – hopefully we get at least one of those toddlers grown up – The one that’s stinky in the above pic… Cyan. Also, I apologize for lack of pics .. they were being pretty boring this week.

His sister, Oceana, is not due to age up for a while, and definitely not during the week. She’s also decided to become a sand castle architect. Only she’s not very good at it yet.

She is so darn cute, though. She’s already my favorite of the two, so her sitting on this little poof so adorably isn’t hurting her case for heir at all.

It occurs to me that this particular placement of the slide is.. well.. dangerous is the word I think I’d use. I move it.

This was completely autonomous, and so cute. I love these kiddie pools.

Amaranthe is working on her charisma for a promotion in the painting career.. Hawea is desperately trying to stop the flood of water from the broken shower. It doesn’t seem to be working.

Proof that I remembered to put in a second toddler bed, since we clearly needed one.

Cyan and his sister having a chat. Both parents were busy, so they had time to occupy themselves.

Amaranthe picks up the “emotional bomb” quirk from fame and failing to get pregnant for the FOURTH time in a row.

I quickly get rid of that quirk. Yuck.

And the very next try – success. And yes, Hawea did forget to pick up his parts after repairing the shower.

However, he had to go to the library to research on their computers for his job.. so he had priorities. I’ve had him working from home all week, since the toddlers always need attention.

It’s apparently Love Day – so I have Amaranthe meet him at the bar on the way home for a date. Legendary, too.

He comes home and is clearly over the whole potty training thing. Can’t say as I blame him. But at least Cyan is done with potty training, now.

Just in time, too!!

Happy Birthday, Cyan! (I don’t know why Amaranthe doesn’t look pregnant yet – she is..)

He rolled Vegetarian. Oh, no. I almost immediately forget and have him eat meat. two meals in a row. I have a feeling these will not be the only meals I forget, unless I can remember to have Mom cook only vegetarian food from now on.

Aw, he’s a cutie. But that Vegetarian trait – almost disqualifies him from being an heir in my book. We’ll see what his sister gets.

Calling off for Family Leave in her third trimester. Which means I’m waiting to save and post this until after the baby arrives.

I’ve discovered this raises parenting skill quite nicely, so Oceana has been able to swim quite a bit. Also: note all the bottles on the floor behind the pool.

I don’t know why, but random villagers keep showing up and making the anti-stress serum from Outdoor Retreat Herbalism. They have not been invited over, nor are they giving the serums to us. They’re still marked as being owned. Very weird. Never had that happen before. I can use them, though.. so I guess we’ll start using them.

Oceana, leaving her mark on the end of the week. She’s now at Happy Toddler levels, and has three days still til her Birthday. And she did most of it on her own. Who knows, she might even get Top Notch Toddler!

And.. the reason I was waiting. Meet Teal, the new little boy in the family. I manage to get him born after an annoying hospital glitch that left Amaranthe stuck for hours. Sending her “home” triggered another hospital popup.. so I sent her alone that time, since joining her most definitely didn’t work. We’ll have to wait until next time to see what little Teal looks like, though, because I’m already past the end of their sim-week. See you next time!

Chapter 1.2 | Chapter 1.4

Chapter 1.6 | Chapter 1.8

When Caizey woke, it was to the rays of sunlight playing in colors on the wall from the stained glass windows. Stretching happily, she crawled out of bed and groaned at the temperature. Apparently there was a summer heatwave going on. She found her hot weather dress, and headed downstairs. A couple of paintings later, she noticed that her stomach was growling, so she took a break from painting to get some fruit salad for breakfast.

Pulling her fruit salad out of the fridge, Caizey again smiled to herself about her new dining room furniture. And a bar – what had possessed her to buy a BAR! She didn’t even know how to make drinks! Chuckling, she shrugged. That just gave her a new project – learning how. If she ever had the time, that is….

She washed up her dishes and put them away, then headed back to her art room. The inspiration was clear today, and she carefully began work on what she was sure would be a masterpiece.

It turned out that Caizey was right. It was the perfect painting to keep, too, to commemorate mastering the painting skill. She made a mental note to actually furnish the living room… parlor? .. to match the painting, because it looked sorta silly in there by itself.

Pulling out her furniture catalog, she lost a few hours picking things out and planning what to spend. The poor catalog was now dog-eared all to heck, but such was life when you had a whole house to furnish!

Crawling back into bed that night, Caizey decided she had spent enough time alone this week. Tomorrow, she was definitely going to take the day off of painting and head out on the town. It was supposed to be even hotter, then, too, and spending time in her still-un-air-conditioned house just didn’t sound like fun.

She spent the next morning weeding her baby money trees, whistling to herself.

Then, she practiced her pick up lines in the mirror in the bathroom, happy to finally have a shower and bathtub. This house was really coming together, now! However, it was getting hotter, and it was long past time to get some socialization in, so Caizey headed out to the local bar.

…. And look who was here! Lucian! And who was that at the bar? Another handsome man. She surreptitiously greeted him, hoping that Lucian wouldn’t notice when she jotted down the man’s number for another day.

Wouldn’t you know it.. it was “Knight Night” at the bar – and there were a million people here. Caizey waved at a few familiar faces, and sat down to chat for a little while.

Finally, she decided enough was enough, and snuck behind the bar to get a hug from Lucian. He looked as overwhelmed by the crowd as she was, and was definitely amenable to calling in a replacement and heading out the back door with Caizey.

They drove a while, heading into Windenburg to the closest Nightclub – the Narwhal Arms. Caizey had a blast joking with Lucian on the way, and she was more than willing to hop straight onto the dance floor with him when they got there.

Luckily, this weren’t quite as crowded here, and there was plenty of space to “get her groove on”. Lucian laughed at her antics, and they shared a grin over the music. Even the DJ got a little carried away and put the music on auto-play, coming down from the booth to dance with everyone else.

Later, on a break from dancing, Caizey and Lucian found a quiet corner to get to know each other a little better.

Spying a random closet, they took advantage of it – although Caizey was pretty sure several other people in the club noticed. Lucian was ready to head home since he’d had a long night – but Caizey was not, so they parted ways. She was sure she could find a ride home… and started glancing around the club again.

Bingo! Caizey wondered why all the bartenders seemed to be hot in the area, and headed over to make his acquaintance. She made a stop by the flowerbed outside the front door, and picked a rose to surprise him with.

It turns out his name was Blaine, and he was so Self-Absorbed he hadn’t even noticed Lucian and her antics from a bit ago. Which worked out in her favor – and she quickly charmed him completely. He called in a replacement, and Caizey agreed to meet him outside.

On her way there, she noticed the pompous guy from the other bar than she’d given the potion to.. and she chuckled to herself. It didn’t look like he remembered her, though, luckily.. and she pretty much ignored him.

A heated kiss later – Caizey noticed out of the corner of her eye that Paolo had spotted her and Blaine. Oops! Guess she wasn’t going to worry about calling him again! She made her excuses to Blaine and hopped on her broom to go visit the Magic Realm and escape this crazy club.

She related the entire hilarious story to Morgyn – who appreciated a good laugh, then Caizey charmed her out of the last couple of Mischief spells she needed for her spellbook. After a little practice session, Caizey decided that she was so close to having a full spellbook – there was certainly no reason to stop now.

She tracked down Simeon, and after a bit of light conversation, she managed to get her last two spells out of him. She now knew all the spells, and the potions, too! She hadn’t completely topped out her experience bar to Virtuoso, yet, though, and so she found some more folk to practice her new skills on.

She reveled in the way the magic sparkled in her hands and she threw spell after spell. Her opponent blocked a few spells, but he couldn’t block them all.

Soon, a well-placed zap spell knocked him off her feet and netted her a few simoleons. What luck! – Or was it skill? Caizey smirked to herself and headed off to the basement to mix up some more needs potions.

L. Faba grinned at her as she walked by, and they shared a smile. Her mentor was incredibly proud of all that she had accomplished, and all the duels she won. Caizey was sure she had heard about Caizey mastering her spellbook, too, since the three spellmasters were very close friends.

Finally, exhausted, Caizey headed home. Her comfortable canopy bed was calling her, and after a lovely bath, she fell into a sound sleep, dreaming about dancing spells and grown money trees.

(A/N: This story is now on “break” – but don’t worry, Caizey will be back in August. If you’re interested in stories like hers, feel free to check out my “Foreshadowed Sunset” vampire story – I have 8 new chapters of it coming in July! .. and 15 chapters from my Mermaid Legacy story, “Tails of Sulani”, also coming over the next month. Caizey will see you again in August, and I’m so excited to be caught up on posting her story finally so I’ll be able to dive back into playing her. She needs an heir, after all… and that house needs wallpaper!!)

Chapter 1.6 | Chapter 1.8

Chapter 1.5 | Chapter 1.7

Days later, Caizey was back in the Magical Realm, working on some more needs potions. She had workers all over her house back home – installing a greenhouse in her backyard. The new windows she had ordered were due to come in in a few days, too. With all the noise the workers were making, she hadn’t been able to think straight, so she decided it was time to work on her magic some more. Perhaps they would be done by the time she got home!

Simeon, the Practical magic teacher had turned out to be a great friend. Whenever she got the chance, Caizey spent some time with him, either chatting or training. She felt she was pretty much at the end of where she could go with her Mischief magic, so concentrating on the other two schools of magic kept her occupied.

She was also steadily improving her dueling skills. Not only was she winning, she was having fun with it. Sure, it was frustrating to lose occasionally – but winning usually netted her some more ingredients and sometimes even money.

Really, things couldn’t get much more perfect if she wanted them to. If someone had told her where her life could go a few weeks ago, she never would have believed them…. and there would have never been a question in her mind as to whether to take the crazy offer her “benefactor” had offered.

After that last duel, Caizey’s phone went off – apparently the workers were done with her greenhouse. She could wait to see it, however, because there were more duels to be had. Lots of them.

She had won every single duel. Even the one against Darrel Charm – the braggart who said he couldn’t be beaten because of his Ancient Bloodline. With a bag full of new ingredients and a wide smile on her face, Caizey hopped on her broom and headed home.

The new greenhouse was amazing. It just needed a coat of paint – but she could do that on her own. It’s not like she didn’t know her way around a paintbrush! Caizey had also discovered a loophole. You were only supposed to get one Money Tree – but nobody made the seeds immune to magic. Her Copypasto spell had worked admirably – and she now had enough plants to seed the whole greenhouse with Money Trees. If one was good, more was better, right? All she had to do was wait for them to grow and her money worries were over forever.

That reminded her – she had to go check out her new bed, too. She put the new bed linens on it and gazed at it happily for a while, almost dumbfounded at how far she’d come.

Her comfortable bed could wait for a while longer, however.. because she still had to pay for those new windows she ordered. The smells of the magical herbs she had successfully grown filled the room with inspiration, and she painted late into the night.

Finally, her stomach growled loud enough to distract her, and she headed into her new dining room. She gazed proudly over the full table, and contemplated ordering a chandelier for above it. It was still a little too dark in the room for her taste. Then she laughed at herself wryly. She had bought a huge table and full kitchen for just her. What a silly thing she was – but she had the advantage, now, of being able to be as silly as she wanted with her life and her funds.

Days later – and who knows how many paintings, the workers finally finished installing the windows. She could finally say she had a real home. Granted, she still needed to put up wallpaper and finish furnishing the other rooms – but she’d made a real start to things.

The greenhouse was even fully painted now, with little money trees sprouting happily inside it. Life was perfect.

(A/N: I apologize for the lack of story in this post – there’s only so many times you can describe a duel and have it be interesting. Then there were the house pictures, which I really wanted to include so everyone can see this masterpiece, but they required very little in the way of explanation. I have one more post of this story to publish tomorrow, then this story will be going on the shelf until August while I work on Simnano in July. But the best part is, that last post will put me back to being caught up and ready to play Caizey as soon as July is over!)

Chapter 1.5 | Chapter 1.7

So, I made the mistake of getting bored and reading a link someone else posted to another challenge I was working on – and I was immediately intrigued. The more I read on the “Through the Ages” challenge by ericanoelle (https://ericanoelle.tumblr.com/post/188701427438), the more hooked I got, and the more I wanted to update things a little and make the challenge my own. I eventually branched off and made my own rules for the challenge, and gave it a new name. Originally I called it “Exploring History Challenge”, and a lot of people were confusing it with the actual “History Challenge” – which I assure you, is a completely different thing. I didn’t 100% know whether this playthrough was going to be be story or commentary, and I wasn’t sure I’d know from one generation to the next, either. I was just playing for fun (and to test out my rules adaptation), and going to go with whatever mood struck me at the time. I did decide to blog it, though, so that’s where this page comes in.

This particular playthrough of the challenge was abandoned when I started streaming on Twitch, and I decided testing out my new “Timeline Adventure Challenge” (what I finally renamed the challenge to) rules was the first Sims save I played live on Twitch. The rules have been changed fairly extensively since this original Plumbob playthrough, but this particular challenge attempt holds the distinction of having some of the strangest sim genetics of any of my challenges.