Round 7 Part 6: Bridgeview (2053 - 2057)

Greg and Joan are 61 years old, Joseph is 21, Seth is 17, 

Jeannie is 15, Gabriel and Edward are 14, Brian is 10.

"Starlight"

narrated by Greg Pons

You might think, if you didn't know us too well, that my wife Joan and I are pretty close to being empty nesters. We sent two more kids off to college recently--the big boys, Joe and Seth...

Our seventh child, Brian, became a teenager...

And our oldest, Sarah, is about to give us a grandchild!

But I think Joan has been feeling at loose ends since she lost her job at the magazine a few years back. They fired her, if you can believe that, after she worked there for years without giving them any trouble. They made up some cock-and-bull story about how she made a mistake that cost them a lot of money, but I think they just figured she was nearing retirement age and if they sacked her they wouldn't have to pay a pension.

She still writes her novels, but I guess that doesn't fill her days enough.

So she called the social worker who arranged our last three adoptions and got us doing this "long-term foster care" gig. Here's Lisa--she was our first placement.

And Starla was the second. Of course, I know what "long-term foster care" really means. It means that in six months or a year or so, once I've gotten good and attached to these girls, Joan is going to give me a speech about how if they're going to stay with us for the long haul anyway we might as well make it official. And I'll agree like I always do.

It's not that I mind kids, but at our age they should be grandkids, so we can hand them back at the end of the day and go enjoy a well-deserved night of uninterrupted sleep!

Admittedly, the older kids do help, though we insist that their studies and even hobbies come first. Jeannie even insists on sharing a room with the little girls, though we've got plenty of space. Says she misses Sarah and it's easy enough to get her studying done while watching to make sure Lisa doesn't climb out of the crib after bedtime.

Even Joan's mom, who's nearly 80 and getting quite frail, makes the effort to come over and see the new girls. She was thrilled when Lisa started calling her "Grandma"--Lisa's number 21 or 22 or something for her, but she acts like it's Sarah all over again.

So I fall into line (military training teaches you that almost as well as wives do!) and make sure the little girls are as well-provided-for as all the others. Getting Starla into private school was easy enough. I know all the headmasters and they know me, or at least know my checkbook--I've probably put all their kids through college with the tuition I've paid over the years!

Oh, and we got a dog. What we need a dog for with nine kids I'll never know, but Joan read something on the Simternet about dogs being good for visually impaired children, so next thing I know I was being sent to the pet store to pick up Dawn. Starla seems to like the creature at any rate, and if Joan takes a shine to it as well maybe I can convince her to get a puppy instead when she inevitably starts pestering me about another kid!

Notes:

- Brian is a Pleasure Sim, LTW 50 Dream Dates. Ugh.

- Greg will lose the kid debate one last time, and then I am never doing the 10 Kids IW again. It is way too much work--though not as much as 50 Dream Dates!

- According to the timestamp, I took the pictures for this update in March of 2013--about when my son was conceived, and he can walk and talk now! I obviously need to stay on top of this blog better.

Testing...

Jeannie and I are trying to figure out posting from a Picasa web album.

Round 7 Part 5: Riedmayer-Landgraab Estate (2053-2057)

Beata is 76, Mal is 73, Malcolm is 38, Theresa is 35, Cole is 4, Melinda and Michael are 0.

"Crazier"

narrated by Theresa Dejackome

Well, the rugrat population around here is definitely in decline--Cole turned 5 about three years ago. (Cole is a bit of a stretch as a nickname, I know, but what are we supposed to call him when his father and grandfather have the same name?)

He got into private school, of course. The Landgraab family has a pretty impressive reputation around here and the headmaster is an old family friend.

The year after that, the twins had their own milestone birthday, turning 2.

I really can't say I was sad to see it. Babies are not my cup of tea.

Now they're old enough to entertain themselves a bit--or entertain each other. That's the nice thing about twins, I suppose.

Mom (yeah, I gave up and started calling her Mom--everybody else does) watches them during the day, while everybody is at work and school and Dad is running his host of businesses.

The only downside is that she encourages Cole in his flights of fancy--or maybe believes them herself! He made up a crazy story last year about finding a genie lamp on the front porch.

And a few months later he had this running fantasy about a werewolf that would come to visit and let him pet it. I told him he probably shouldn't pet werewolves if he doesn't want to get bit.

Anyway, my career is really taking off now that everybody's sleeping through the night. I snagged a position as city planner earlier this year. I don't know if I'm going to stick with it or go for something a little more fun, though.

Bonus random pics:

All three Malcolms sitting together

Theresa painted portraits of her in-laws

Notes:

- You'll notice from the link in the title that I've decided to start the tradition of using not-really-related song titles as post titles. Whether I continue it or not is anybody's guess.

- There's not much of a storyline here because I was really expecting Beata to die this round, but she's hanging in there--I guess she wants to meet her first great-grandchild come Sarah and Douglas' update. 

Round 7 Part 4: Whitfill Ranch (2053 - 2057)

Blake Whitfill is 46, Millie is 41, Landon and Ginny are 10.

"Charmed"

narrated by Millie

Sometimes I'm pretty well convinced I lead a charmed life. My husband's music career does take him away from home longer than some other jobs, but when he is home we're able to enjoy him for weeks at a time.

My extended family all live in the area, so my kids get to grow up with cousins and second cousins and first cousins once removed and all that. [Here they are with Andrew Riedmayer, who is technically Millie's first cousin.]

Blake's family is all in town too, and his brothers' kids are all right around our twins in age. [Pictured is Emerson Whitfill.]

Of course, life isn't absolutely perfect--for example, a few years back we had a break-in and the cop let the burglar escape! Fortunately no one was hurt and we could easily afford to replace the things that were stolen.

That was just a few months before the twins had their big milestone birthday--it was so hard for me to believe that my babies were 12 already!

I must admit, we kind of went overboard with their birthday gifts. We had been wanting to renovate the upstairs for a while anyway, so they both got to go all out decorating their rooms.

They were getting too old to be sharing the same room anyhow.

We also got two new puppies--a male named Cullen and a female named Swan. The kids picked their names out; I think they're supposed to be characters from a book or something.

Blake was not happy to get stuck taking the puppies outside in the middle of the night, but I have to get up before dawn to go to the lab and the kids have school, so he did it anyway.

A few months later, Blake was doing a tour in the Far East that coincided with the kids' summer vacation. So we decided to leave the puppies with our siblings (his brother is married to my sister) and go along with him. It was an awesome experience.

The guys both really enjoyed the food. Blake used to be a chef, and Landon has been talking lately about becoming a chef when he's older. I'm not sure if we should take him too seriously, though--I'm pretty sure all 12-year-old boys are obsessed with food!

The kids really enjoyed themselves in general. They'd been talking for years about getting to go on a tour with Daddy, and finally they were old enough to make that dream come true.

I was worried they'd be spoiled by all the leisure time, but once we got home in the fall they threw themselves into their schoolwork again.

Right now Blake's on another tour, so I make sure to sit down and have breakfast with the kids every day before I go to work. (They get themselves on the bus a couple hours later.) Sometimes I quiz them on their homework topics, but other times we just chat about video games or whatever else pops into our heads. I love it no matter what. I might be a little biased, but I'm pretty sure these two are the most awesome kids ever.

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For those of you who still follow this blog and are getting bored, I have a bunch of new posts over at my BACC blog.

Also, here's a cute baby for your inconvenience. He's going to be six months old next week and is almost crawling, so expect posting to remain sporadic as I discover just how not babyproof my apartment is.

Round 7 Part 3: Riedmayer Cove (2053 - 2057)

Jill Smith is 60 years old, Johnson Simpson is 57 years old, Agatha Riedmayer is 33 years old, and Andrew Riedmayer is 2 years old.

"Golden years"
narrated by Johnson Simpson

I never thought, thirty-some years ago, that this is where I'd end up, but life is pretty good. My "grandson," Andrew, turned five a while back.












Agatha is really good with him. Helps him with his homework and stuff, so he can get the best start in life possible.












We managed to get him into private school as well. Jill talked to the headmaster over coffee while I cooked dinner.











Then Agatha spent some time schmoozing him over drinks. I think she got a little tipsy, but apparently it worked since Andrew was accepted.












Now that he's in school all day, things are pretty quiet around here. Jill and I are both still working, though she's got enough time off to take up a pottery-making hobby.











I think she's continuing other hobbies as well, based on the little--and not-so-little--gifts that end up on our front porch. Either that, or Agatha is following in her mother's footsteps. As long as it's not affecting Andrew, I figure it's none of my business.

Administrative notes

1. I've started making profiles for my Sims so I don't have to put their aspirations etc. at the beginning of each post. You can see the ones I've made in the archives for 2001. (Obviously I did not actually write them in 2001.)

2. I also published the family tree online. My one or two regular readers will have to tell me if they can actually view it; I might have to set all the Sims to "dead" so the tree doesn't try to protect their fictional personal information.

3. I won't be doing the "house end of week" pictures anymore. It was fun the first few weeks when everyone was climbing out of poverty, but then I kept it up well past that point. So now I'll just do pictures of new houses or major renovations. If I feel like it.

Now I should go get stuff done IRL so I can work on an actual story post later. (Riedmayer Cove is about 75% done.)

Round 7 Part 2: Dejackome Place (2053-2057)

Melanie Tse: 57 years old. Aspiration: Knowledge. LTW: Max All Skills. (Fulfilled: Become Game Designer.) Astrological sign: Virgo.
Gavin Dejackome: 35 years old. Aspiration: Knowledge. LTW: Become Criminal Mastermind. Astrological sign: Cancer.
Annie (Riedmayer) Dejackome: 32 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. LTW: Become Captain Hero. Astrological sign: Aquarius.
Rivka Dejackome: 3 years old. Astrological sign: Scorpio.

BJ Bigfoot

For a family tree, see this post. The only difference is that Caitlin and Patrick got older, but I didn't take updated screenshots so I can't update the tree anyway.

"One, Two, Three"
narrated by Annie Dejackome

Gavin had to go away on business a few weeks before I was due with the twins, and sure enough, I went into labor the day before he was scheduled to come home. Fortunately, I still had plenty of support. Aunt Mel kept Rivka entertained and out of the way the whole time.

Meanwhile, my dad and my sister Agatha came over to provide support and medical expertise (at least, Dad had a bit of medical expertise). We played lots of chess to pass the time. I think Dad won every game, but of course I was a little distracted.

Finally, the twins were born! First was Melanie Jill, whom we call Lanie. (As you might guess, she's named after Aunt Mel and my aunt Jill, who was like a mother to me growing up.)

The second twin was a boy, Quinton John. (That was my late father's name, but it also honors Dad, who goes by Johnson.)

Gavin had heard that his brother-in-law Donte had made a robot, so not to be outdone, he created Moh. Moh was a little obsessed with the babies, but I guess that's a good thing when you have twin newborns and a preschooler.

Fortunately, Rivka wasn't a preschooler for very long. She's still the spitting image of her father, though as she's gotten older her hair has turned more strawberry blond than true red (and of course her eyes are brown, like mine).

The same year, I finally got my dream job with the SCPD, and before I knew it I had been awarded the prestigious Captain Hero award.

While I was working the twins kept growing, and soon took Riv's place as resident rampaging toddler. (Times two!) Lanie looked pretty much exactly like her sister had at that age.

Quinton looked a bit more like me.

It was very important to Gavin that we get Rivka into Bluewater Academy. I would have liked to wait and do the whole admissions process when the twins were old enough to attend, but Gavin engineered the whole thing, so I let him. I figured Riv would enjoy being in school with all her cousins, anyway.

I must admit, even though they're a lot of work I'm not too eager for the twins to go to school. I'll miss those rare moments when they spend a quiet morning coloring at their activity table, being all tiny and cute everything. But that's how it goes, isn't it? You close your eyes and when you open them again everyone's grown a little older and all sorts of things have changed.

And here's the house at the end of the week. I feel like I need to scrap the whole thing and make it fresh at some point, because it has an awkward layout after being added onto many times. 

I am more pleased with the outside--it took a very long time to get the roof just right.

Notes:

1. All the adults got secondary aspirations this round...Melanie and Annie got Family (yay Comfort Soup!) and Gavin got Romance, which could spell trouble. I guess we'll see.

2. I don't know what Annie's new LTW is now that she's a Captain Hero. I'll have to look it up when I play them next.