Week Six Part Six: Bridgeview

Greg Pons: 54 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. LTW: Become General. Astrological sign: Aries.
Joan Pons: 54 years old. Aspiration: Family. LTW: Marry Off 6 Children. Astrological sign: Leo.
Sarah Pons: 17 years old. Aspiration: Fortune. LTW: Become the Law. Astrological sign: Aries.
Joseph Pons: 14 years old. Aspiration: Romance. LTW: Have 20 Simultaneous Lovers. Astrological sign: Aries.
Seth Pons: 10 years old. Astrological sign: Gemini.
Jeannie Pons: 8 years old. Astrological sign: Aries.
Gabriel Pons: 7 years old. Astrological sign: Aries.
Edward Pons: 7 years old. Astrological sign: Aquarius.

Here is Joan's family tree. Joan's mother, Beata, is the most prolific Sim in Prosperity Plains, with 7 children and 19 grandchildren. She is not even a Family Sim, but Popularity. Joan is a Family Sim, so she is likely to surpass her mother someday.

Greg is a former townie teen, so he has no family save his wife and children. 

"Multiplication"
Narrated by Joan Pons

Hello! You want updates on me and all my kids? Well, my eldest daughter, Sarah, flew the coop a while back. I made sure to give her some Tupperware containers of frozen chicken soup--told her she could thaw one out if she ever had a cold or the flu and it'd make her feel better right away. I think she was a little skeptical, but she took it to please her old mother.

Sarah's always been such a good girl and never once complained about having to help out with all her younger siblings, but I could tell that she was really excited to strike out on her own. She got four scholarships--for good grades, good job performance, high mechanical skill, and high creativity skill. Greg and I were--are--very proud of her.

I missed her something awful, but at least I could reassure myself with the thought that the younger kids wouldn't be leaving me for quite a while. I still had four in elementary school at that point. They would bring home their cousins from school all the time, plus that little girl from across town, Priscilla. One time I caught Joe rocking out on the guitar so all the little kids could dance along. It was pretty adorable, but don't tell Joe that. He was in high school by then and thought he was way too cool for little kid games. 

From left: Joe, Seth, Jeannie, Charles Riedmayer (cousin), River Whitfill (cousin), Priscilla Kules (neighbor), Edward.

Once we saw Sarah off, we decided it was high time to call up the headmaster and get the little kids into private school. Joe and Seth had gotten in before, but things had been too busy for us to get the other three in. They got in pretty easy, though. The headmaster remembered us from before and knew we were a fine, upstanding family.

Academics at the private school were a bit more rigorous than at the public school, so Greg and I had to spend the evenings helping the kids with their homework until they got settled into the new routine. They caught on pretty quick, all three of them. I have some clever kids.

Jeannie already knew how to study and was just doing her homework, but doesn't it look like Joan is tutoring two kids at once?

Round about that time I was doing really well professionally--I published my third novel and it sold really well; my work in the art world got me hailed as a visionary--that sort of thing. Greg and I used the extra income to expand our house, since it was starting to feel a little cramped with our kids getting bigger by the day. We added a second floor with four bedrooms and bathrooms. We told Seth and Joe that they could split up and have their own rooms, but they wouldn't hear of it. (They're the oldest, so we figured we'd give them priority.) Gabe and Edward didn't want to split either, so we made the fourth room into a playroom. 

Downstairs, we knocked out a couple of bedrooms so we could have more room in the kitchen and living room. The old nursery, next to the master bedroom, got turned into an office, so I could stay up late working on novels without bothering Greg.

The renovations were actually paid for by a chance card...something about whether Joan should take a job painting for an organized crime boss. I figured that since her stepfather is leading Criminal Mastermind in Prosperity Plains, she's probably personal friends with this crime boss and would happily paint his house for him. My guess paid off big for the Pons family.

Joan's TOC bonus didn't hurt, though.

(TOC #1 for Joan.)

I switched from art to journalism after I became a visionary--writing has always been my passion more than the visual arts. The hours were good too; Greg and I didn't have to hire a nanny at all. Greg leaves for the base real early in the morning and gets home around the time the kids get home from school--the teens are alone for maybe an hour, but that's not a big deal. I do morning duty--getting the kids on the bus and such--and then have a few hours to myself for novel-writing before I have to head off to spend the afternoon and early evening at work. Then the teens all have after-school jobs, so we don't sit down and have family time until 9:00 or 10:00 at night. We let the kids stay up later than they should, probably, but Greg says they all take naps after school regularly, so I figure they're okay. 

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Around the same time we extended the house, Seth turned 12 and headed off to high school with Joe. He talked about being a chef like his uncle Blake (Blake Whitfill, married to Joan's sister Millie), which is a fine ambition, but I worry about him sometimes. He and Joe are always talking about all the girls they're going to date once they head off to college and meet some that aren't their cousins. I'm not saying everybody's got to settle down right away and have a huge family, but I'd like to see all my kids settled someday. I suppose they've got time; I don't plan on dying anytime soon.

Seth Pons, Pleasure, Become Celebrity Chef

He seems to have his mother's eyes and chin

and his father's nose and mouth. 

Hopefully he'll grow into his features a bit...

It's a good thing we did build onto the house, because a few weeks after Seth's birthday we got a call from our old social worker, the one who handled things when we adopted Jeannie and Edward. Jeannie had gone into foster care when she was four years old and we adopted her when she was five. Apparently, right after we adopted her, her biological mother gave birth to a little boy. 

Now this second child was five years old and she was facing having him taken away by the state and decided to see if we could adopt him instead, to save him from having to go into foster care. (We sent her pictures and letters from time to time, so she knew Jeannie was happy and doing well.) Greg was a little worried about taking on a seventh child at our age, but I talked him into it. We met Brian for the first time a few weeks later and within a year he was officially a member of the Pons family.

We had figured on letting Brian have the playroom as his bedroom, but the little boys wouldn't hear of it. So we had three of them all in a room together--I think it helped Brian to adjust, not being all alone at night. 

Somehow, having my own study didn't afford me a lot of extra privacy. The kids seemed to have some kind of radar to know when I was writing and they'd all be in the study at once, practicing the violin or doing their homework or whatever. I can't say I mind too much; why would I have seven kids if I didn't want to be surrounded by children the rest of my life?

This was pretty much unposed and I thought it was hilarious.

Of course, we got Brian into private school as soon as we could. Greg and the headmaster are best friends by now--Greg is one of those people who makes friends with everyone he meets--and the home visit was pretty much going through the motions. We all knew Brian would get in.

Greg got about 30 schmooze points just by greeting the headmaster! I think they're best friends, which could explain it.

I was glad to have Brian around, because before I knew it all the "little" kids were heading off to high school. Jeannie was first. She is a really pretty girl, but isn't interested in boys yet. She keeps her nose buried pretty well in books--she's not too serious, though; says she wants to design video games for a living when she's older. 

Jeannie Pons: Knowledge, Become Game Designer

The next year, it was Gabe and Edward's turn. Edward is a lot like Jeannie in temperament, but even more serious and bookish. He says he wants to be a world-renowned scientist when he grows up.

Edward Pons: Knowledge, Become Mad Scientist. 
He was the last to grow up and I was kind of hoping he'd be Popularity so Joan and Greg would have the complete collection, but he's really better suited for Knowledge anyway. Maybe Brian will roll Popularity.

Gabe, on the other hand, seems to take after me. He has been telling me lately how all he really wants to do is have a big family. 

Gabriel Pons: Family, Marry Off 6 Children. He has the same mouth/chin combo as Seth, but somehow he pulls it off better, I think.

Gabe has even been telling me who he wants to have that big family with. I think it's a little crazy for a 14-year-old to be thinking such things, but at least he's latched onto a nice girl. Her name is Alexis and she's related somehow to that Priscilla girl from across town. My biggest concern is that she's eight years older than Gabe. That's why I kind of think it's just puppy love at this point, though Gabe claims that they're soul mates and will get married someday. 

Gabe and Alexis are a 2-bolt couple, and both Family Sims, so I think they'll have a future together...

Maybe I shouldn't worry about him getting in over his head, though, considering that I noticed him giving Alexis noogies out on the front lawn. I don't think that's the way to impress a beautiful older woman...

It hasn't just been the kids getting older. Greg and I are 61 now, and starting to look rather wrinkled and gray-haired.

Greg is more handsome as an elder than as an adult, I think. He's wearing a very ugly suit, though. I got him some new clothes right away.

Joan is still very pretty. Sarah is still a teen because I hadn't loaded the college lot yet.

Greg and Joan weren't permaplat, but they were both regular platinum, so they should be with us a good long while yet. (As of the beginning of Week 7, Greg is an astronaut, just 1 promotion away from permaplat. Joan still has to marry off 5 children, though.)

Greg has been focusing on helping the kids get scholarships for college and things. He's assuming that we're going to be focusing on that sort of thing from here on out...but there's a tiny part of me that wonders if we should say goodbye to the little-kid stage just yet...

Here's the house at the end of the week. Not much has changed from the renovation pictures above, but you can see it from a different angle.

The second floor. Joe and Seth sleep in the room on the left, Jeannie in the room on the right, and the other three boys in the room in back.

The outside. The mahjong tables are from Family Sunday, which was unremarkable and therefore didn't make it into the update. I should move the obstacle course; when I was having Greg train the boys they kept getting in each other's way. (I was yelling "You are too stupid to live!" at my computer and my husband didn't bat an eyelash. He's a gamer too.)

Odd pic out: As it turns out, Greg is good friends with Zeeshan Kimbrell, father of Agatha Riedmayer's illegitimate son. Here they are talking about how hot Agatha is. Greg had better not let his wife catch him talking about her aunt that way...