Week Six Part Five: Riedmayer-Landgraab Estate

Beata Riedmayer-Landgraab: 69 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. Lifetime want: Own 5 Top-Level Businesses. (Fulfilled: Become General.) Astrological sign: Scorpio.
Malcolm Landgraab IV: 66 years old. Aspiration: Fortune. Lifetime want: Own 5 Top-Level Businesses. (Fulfilled: Become Criminal Mastermind.) Astrological sign: Gemini.
Malcolm Landgraab V: 31 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. Lifetime want: Become Media Magnate. Astrological sign: Gemini.
Theresa Dejackome: 28 years old. Aspiration: Fortune. (Formerly Romance.) Lifetime want: Become City Planner. Astrological sign: Libra.
Marion Langraab: 25 years old. Aspiration: Pleasure. Lifetime want: Have 50 1st Dates. Astrological sign: Gemini.
Margaret "Maggie" Landgraab: 19 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. Lifetime want: Have 20 Simultaneous Best Friends. Astrological sign: Gemini.

Here is the Riedmayer family tree, very slightly truncated. (Beata's cousins are excluded.) Beata recently became an aunt for the first time by her much younger half-sister Agatha, though she was hardly lacking in relatives before that, with 7 children and 16 grandchildren. There is simply no way to make her family tree very small.

This is the family tree for Theresa, the final member of the household. (Theresa lives here because she is engaged to Malcolm V.) The Dejackomes have only just grown to the point where their tree is wider than it is tall. Theresa's two older sisters both got pregnant twice in Round 5, but Gretchen didn't manage to deliver her second child before the end of the round. (So she has to waddle around town heavily pregnant for several real-life months.) Theresa's sister-in-law Annie--wife to her twin brother Gavin--was put in a similar predicament earlier in this round.

If I had not truncated the Riedmayer tree, you would be able to tell that Annie is Beata's first cousin. I think it is funny that Theresa's brother is married to her fiance's mother's cousin. I just like twisty family trees. 

"The Right Thing To Do"
Narrated by Theresa Dejackome

Mal and I went back to live with his parents after college. We just stuck a double bed up in his old room...I wasn't a fan of the whole fish theme, but neither of us had jobs yet so we didn't have a whole lot of spare cash to redecorate. Mal's parents are worth a lot, but it's all tied up in the businesses.

No sooner were we back then Mal's younger sisters left for Sim State. Marion, the older one, got six scholarships. (For good grades, cooking, logic, creativity, top of teen career, and dance skill.)

Maggie got five. (The same as Marion's minus cooking.)

Mal and I ended up both getting jobs with the SCIA--not the dream career for either of us, but it paid the bills. We also spent a ton of time helping out with the various businesses that Mal's parents own.

In the fall of 2048 I found out I was pregnant. It wasn't exactly planned, though Mal had broached the subject a few times...he wanted a son to carry on the family name. Anyway, Mal wanted to get married the moment we found out, but I wasn't sure I wanted to rush into it. I mean, we'd been together for seventeen years by then and exclusive for five, and I was pretty sure I wanted to be with him the rest of my life, but marriage still didn't appeal to me much.

Beata suggested that we go to the beach house...Big Mal had bought it a few years previously but they'd never had a chance to go. (I call Mal's dad Big Mal. It seemed like a good idea at the time and he thinks it's hilarious, probably because he's shorter than me.) Beata said we could clear our heads and make a better decision that way, but I think she just wanted to get away from the winter weather.

Remember how Dogface there got into an altercation with Theresa at Gavin's wedding? Now he's apparently taken up staring creepily at the Landgraab family as revenge. 

We spent the entire week doing pretty much nothing, which was awesome.

I think the break made Mal and I both perform better at work. At any rate, we both got promoted to Head of the SCIA a few weeks after we got back. Of course, that's just a job title. The real head of the SCIA has a totally ordinary sounding job title. We were pretty much working as glorified decoys. 

And maybe the vacation did clear my head a bit, because Mal and I got married in March. It was just a quickie ceremony with Mal's parents as witnesses, but it felt good. It felt like the right thing to do.

Our son was born on April 5, 2049. Mal was so excited you wouldn't even believe it. Of course, we named the baby Malcolm Landgraab VI. He looks like me, though--red hair and brown eyes. 

After the baby was born (I called him "the baby" at first, and then "Baby Mal" later.) we used the money we'd saved to renovate the house a bit. Downstairs we added a formal dining room and a little den. 

The upstairs study we turned into a nursery for the baby...sort of. We had other renovation plans so instead of a major redecoration we just stuck a crib and changing table in there. 

Shortly after Baby Mal was born, my Mal managed to get a job as a magazine editor, which was what he wanted to be doing. I still had no luck finding work as an architect, so I mainly helped out with the businesses. We got our second Best of the Best Award for the business we opened that year.

We had gotten the first shortly after Mal and I came back from college, after Big Mal had been in business for 40 years without getting any.

Meanwhile, Baby Mal was growing up fast and looking more like me every day.

Mal and I aren't the types to want a huge family, but he thought Baby Mal would be lonely as an only child and I kind of wanted a girl. Mal wanted them to be close, but I won out there...I found out I was pregnant again on Mal's fourth birthday, so they'd be about 4 1/2 years apart. 

The businesses were doing well, so we decided that we should expand our house before the new baby arrived. So we built out over the newer downstairs wing (with the dining room and the den). Our new bedroom was big enough to keep my drafting table on one end...I managed to finally get a job in architecture at that point.

We added two bathrooms, though there was a net gain of only one since we had to rip out the old bathroom to extend the hallway.

One Sunday just before school started back up, we closed the home business and invited over all our relatives for the day. The guys mostly played poker.

Clockwise from left: Johnson Simpson (Beata's uncle by marriage), Mal, Greg Pons, and Thomas Dai. (Thomas married Edith late last round, as you may recall.)

The little boys (Mal has a TON of nephews) mostly watched TV.

From left: Edward Pons, Charles Riedmayer, Seth Pons, and Gabriel Pons.

I ended up sitting and eating sandwiches with a couple of them. They talked about videogames the whole time. I wonder if all little boys like videogames. You'd think I'd know something about little boys, since I have a twin brother, but I don't understand them at all. 

Gabriel Pons again, Landon Whitfill, and Theresa.

Theresa's relatives were there too, but I didn't get any good pictures of them.

On November 18 I went into labor. I gave birth to a little boy, Michael...

And a daughter, Melinda!

The twins were definitely a surprise, but at least we have Mal's parents helping out. I don't know if I'd survive otherwise, with three kids under five. 

Speaking of, I think I hear somebody wailing upstairs. I suppose I should go check...

Side story: When Theresa went into labor, she was standing around in the dining room with Beata and Malcolm V. She walked right past both of them and into the kitchen to hand Michael to Malcolm IV so she could give birth to Melinda. I have no idea why you'd pick your father-in-law as labor assistant over your husband or mother-in-law.

The bottom floor of the house at the end of the week. You saw the new rooms close up earlier.

The second floor. I really like how the extension turned out. Right now Malcolm VI and Michael share the fish room and Melinda has the princess room.

The outside. There should probably be more windows.

The front. I still really like this house's overall look and cannot really take credit for it since it is a Maxis house, albeit heavily made over. 










In case you can't tell, Malcolm VI has red hair, brown eyes, and S2 skin. Michael has blond hair, brown eyes, and S3 skin. Melinda has blond hair, brown eyes, and S1 skin. I think it's funny that they each got a different skin tone. 

Right now the Landgraabs have 4 Level 10 businesses and 2 more that are working their way up, so next round they'll probably become my first ever family with 5 Level 10 businesses.

Also, I couldn't figure out how to fit it into the update, but look what I did! I think Beata's life insurance policy is going to benefit a lot of people when she goes to party with Grim...

And Theresa is doing very well for someone who's only been a Fortune Sim for 1/3 of her life. These college grads are almost too easy.

Week Six Part Four: Whitfill Ranch

Blake Whitfill: 39 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. (Formerly Romance.) LTW: Become Rock God. (Fulfilled: Become Celebrity Chef.) Astrological sign: Aries.
Mildred "Millie" (Landgraab) Whitfill: 34 years old. Aspiration: Knowledge. LTW: Become Hand of Poseidon. (Fulfilled: Become Education Minister.) Astrological sign: Gemini.
Landon Whitfill: 3 years old. Astrological sign: Libra.
Virginia "Ginny" Whitfill: 3 years old. Astrological sign: Aries.

The Whitfill Family. Blake is the eldest and thus the Generation 2 heir of the Whitfill family. He has two brothers who are happily married and two sisters who are happily single. This is the same picture used in Rishell and Veronica's update. They changed their shirts since then, but that wasn't worth making a new family tree thing. 

The Riedmayer-Landgraab Family. Through her mother, Millie is related to the Riedmayers of Riedmayer Cove (who featured in the last update), but I confined the tree to her more immediate family to make it more legible. Millie has five sisters and one brother; her older sisters have provided her with six nieces and eight nephews so far. She shares three of those nieces and one nephew with Blake, since her sister is married to his brother.

"Fatherhood"
Narrated by Blake Whitfill

Hey, Blake here. I guess I'm supposed to tell you about raising the twins? Okay.

To start off, let me just say there was a time in my life when I didn't want to do the whole marriage and family thing. I had a lovely mother once, but I never had a father, and I guess a part of me was terrified of messing it up with no examples to follow.

Let me tell you, though, the first time my son looked me in the eye and called me "Daddy", every doubt melted away and I knew I was always meant to do this.

Side note: When I opened this lot, both toddlers were in rock-bottom red aspiration. My best guess is that they had a "Relative breaks up" fear that was fulfilled when their aunt Edith broke off her engagement to Corbin Todd. Fortunately, neither of them had any toddler skills, so Blake did some marathon training sessions and got them in platinum pretty quickly.

At the time, I was working as a celebrity chef. It was good work; I was out of the house a few evenings a week but other than that I could be home with the kids. Meanwhile my wife, Millie, was working early days as an oceanographer--she'd leave long before it was light out and get home in the early afternoons, so we had some family time before I'd have to go off to the restaurant.

Next things we knew, it was time for the twins to go to school. It was so interesting to see them grow up and notice how they looked like their parents. Landon is my spitting image, except something about the shape of his eyes reminds me of his mother.

(In game, Landon seems to have the round Riedmayer eyes rather than his father's narrower eyes. In this picture he just looks like a mini-Blake, though.)

Ginny looks more like her mother at first glance, with her lighter complexion and blond hair (though she has my brown eyes, just like her brother), but she seems to have gotten all of her facial features from me. I'm a handsome fellow, if I do say so myself, so probably she'll end up a pretty woman. Oh, Millie is reading over my shoulder and says it doesn't matter if she's pretty as long as she turns out intelligent and good. Sure, sure. But I bet she's going to be pretty too.

(I worry about Ginny's looks myself, but I didn't figure Blake would share that worry. :))

Anyway, it was really important to Millie that the twins go to her alma mater, Bluewater Academy. It's this swanky private school, with uniforms and everything. I always just went to public school and I turned out okay, but what Millie wants, Millie gets. I just sign the checks.

Millie gave the headmaster a tour of our house--we had some landscaping done just for him--and I cooked my speciality, lobster thermidor. Naturally, the headmaster couldn't say no to our kids and they got admitted easily.

Of course, we made sure to sit the twins down every afternoon and go over their homework. No sense wasting that fancy private education by slacking off.

Sure enough, soon they were bringing home nothing but A+ report cards.












Shortly after the twins started school, I gave up my cooking show in favor of my other hobby, music. It was nice to be able to pursue my dream, but even nicer to come home.

(Recall that last round Blake maxed his enthusiasm in music and dance. By sheer coincidence, his second LTW was "Become Rock God.")

Millie was able to stay home with the kids while I was touring because she was the head of the National Oceanographers Association and hardly had to go into work. (Her coworkers jokingly called her The Hand of Poseidon. She's pretty brilliant at what she does.)

(TOC and LTW #2 for Millie. I think her new LTW is to become a City Planner.)

While I was away, Millie and the twins apparently spent their evenings sitting around studying quietly. I guess the twins got good looks from me and brains from their mom. 

They also worked on their extracurriculars--Landon was in the chess club (Imagine! My son in the chess club.) and Ginny played violin with the school orchestra.

Millie also taught the kids how to cook--now that's a manly occupation for my son! He'll be a celebrity chef someday, I bet, just like his dad!

In between school terms and my band's tours, we had relatives over all the time. We wanted to make sure the twins got to know their cousins and all that, plus Millie and I both like spending time with our siblings. We definitely had a full house, since I'm the oldest of five children and Millie is the middle of seven. (As much as I love my siblings and my kids, I'm kind of glad Millie and I stopped at just two. Five or seven or whatever would have been just a little crazy.)

Playing the bingo game: Marion Landgraab, Greg Pons, Beata Riedmayer-Landgraab, Malcolm Landgraab IV, Blake. At the mahjong table: Rishell Whitfill, Edward Pons, Theresa Dejackome, Landon. At the Don't Wake The Llama table: Fritz Riedmayer, Maggie Landgraab, Lauren Whitfill, Ginny.

Having hula lessons: Gabe Pons, Millie, Seth Pons, Charles Riedmayer, Edith Riedmayer, Joan Pons, Malcolm Landgraab V, Jeannie Pons.

These pics are actually from "Family Sunday." I got this idea from Jungfrun68 over at Mattsmyra. 

Oh, one more thing I almost forgot! Earlier this year, Millie got a perfect score on the SKILL test. She worked really hard on that and we're all super proud of her.

(Yay for Impossible Wants!)

I guess that's all for now, but the twins will be teenagers in just a couple of years and then there's sure to be something else to write about!

Here's the house at the end of the week. Blake and Millie have reclaimed the ground floor suite, but other than that not much has changed.

Incidentally, when I built this house I based it loosely off a Maxis house I had played once. I was puttering around in a different neighborhood and decided to check out that house just for fun and realized I had reproduced the first floor almost exactly. So, credits: Whitfill Ranch, copied from the Cape Cod Classic by Maxis. 

Here's the second floor. Landon and Ginny share a room for the time being, with screens around their beds for privacy. (Not that Sims care.) Maybe next time I visit them I will build a garage for the candy machine and treadmill and whatnot so that third bedroom will be usable instead of being a dumping ground for random stuff.

Here's the whole lot. Yes, I think a garage will fit in very nicely on the left side there.