Week Four Part Nine: Lothlorien

Jihoon Whitfill and Francine Riedmayer barely let the ink dry on their college diplomas before they were signing a marriage license.

Due to the Great Flu Epidemic of '32, Jihoon and Francine chose to only have the 2 necessary witnesses to their marriage. They invited over Darius Kules and his fiancee Elise Kalson, had the ceremony, and called it a day.

Random portrait spam: The Whitfill kids are not going to have good luck with noses.

This is not the most flattering picture of Francine, but I think it's the only picture I have that shows the front of her dress.

Jihoon is not much to look at. He's a pretty sweet guy, though.

Jihoon got a job as a high school teacher; Fran got a low-level job as a dancer. It was far from her goal of ballet, but at least she was building a reputation.

The newlyweds' favorite activity was eating dinner together on the patio after Fran got home from work. Jihoon often remarked how lucky he was to have married a woman like her.

To keep herself from going mad with boredom, Fran spent a lot of time honing her skills. Since Jihoon wasn't much of a chess player, she often played against herself.

Jihoon, by contrast, found his job quite fulfilling. However, he soon moved from high school to college in order to get better pay and more flexible hours.

I love this picture because it looks like Jihoon is confused about getting promoted. (He's actually reacting to the rain.)

The promotion was especially timely since at about the same time Fran discovered that she was pregnant and would need to take time off from dancing professionally.

Although the pregnancy slowed her down, Fran made sure to keep working on her skills.

Just a month before her parents' fifth wedding anniversary, baby Lauren made her way into the world. She strongly resembled her father, with very pale skin, brown hair, and dark blue eyes.

I spent way too much time making this. She's the first Gen 3 baby, she should get something special, right?

After Lauren's birth, Fran felt extraordinarily fulfilled, even though her career was going rather poorly and her lifelong dream of being a ballerina seemed very far off. Jihoon was happy that his wife seemed so happy.

Francine was the very first Sim in Prosperity Plains to fill the Lifetime Aspiration Meter--and without even fulfilling her Lifetime Want!

Shortly after Lauren's birth, Francine went back to work. Sometimes, she would invite Elise Kules over for dinner on the patio. They all loved to reminisce about their college days.

But they also loved to talk about more recent happenings. Not long after Lauren was born, Elise had given birth to a son, Silas.

Fran made sure that she did not get too wrapped up in her career--Lauren was growing up fast.

I really like this picture of Francine, though it's not very flattering to Lauren, who did indeed get a rather weird-looking nose.

Lauren got a dollhouse for her second birthday; Fran enjoyed showing her daughter how to play with the dolls--Lauren's first instinct was to eat them!

Jihoon also made sure to stay involved in his daughter's life. He had spent his own early years in an orphanage and was very glad to be able to provide a better life for little Lauren.

Given how much they enjoyed their first child, it seemed only logical to try for another. So they did, and succeeded when Lauren was three years old.

This is what the downstairs looked like at the end of the week. I want somebody to write me a hack that makes the Sims eat outside when the weather is nice and inside when it's raining or cold. My Sims always seem to choose the wrong thing.

The upstairs has a very open floorplan, mostly because they can't afford walls yet.

And the outside. I'm actually really proud of how this house turned out.

As I mentioned above, Lauren is officially the first member of Generation 3. Francine is Generation 1, having been the only CAS toddler. Jihoon is Generation 2, having been adopted as a child by a CAS elder. According to the Prosperity Challenge rules, this makes Lauren Generation 3. (She will likely marry Silas Kules, who is Generation 2--son of a CAS teen and an ex-townie--and their children will be Generation 4. See how this works?) I get a kick out of the fact that the youngest member of Generation 1 gave birth to the oldest member of Generation 3.