Round 7 Part 9: Lothlorien (2053-2057)

Francine is 51, Jihoon is 44, Lauren is 16, River is 13, and Elijah and Tamara are 8.

"Hold Us Together"

narrated by River Whitfill

It's been crazy lonely here since Lauren left for college. Everybody in this family is super shy, but Lauren still somehow had this knack for getting along with people and I think that sort of held the rest of us together. Now we're all going off in our own separate directions.

At least the twins did get into private school with me. Mom and Dad couldn't afford tuition for all of us before, but then Mom quit her job with the ballet troupe and started working at Granddad's business, doing bookkeeping or something. She doesn't talk about it much; says it's super boring but at least it pays the bills and she can keep doing it when she's old, unlike with ballet.

They're teenagers now, the twins, so they're even in the same building as I am at school. Eli has kind of turned into a tool--all he talks about is how he's going to get a job and get rich, or how he wants to marry a woman who's a good cook but not too smart. Plus he likes to sit around in his boxers all day on the weekends. Boys...

But Tam is super nice. Nicer than me, I'll admit. She says she wants to get married and have a ton of kids and see them get married and have a ton of kids and so on down the line.

That's definitely not for me. I like my siblings and all (even Eli, most of the time), but I don't get that big family togetherness thing. Mom and Dad always make sure there's food in the fridge and we have all the books and things we could want to entertain ourselves, but then they kind of go do their own thing. Now that we're all pretty self sufficient I swear they spend all day making out in their pajamas.

Or locked in the bedroom. Mom always makes excuses like, "We're going to go do taxes!" but I'm pretty sure nobody gets that excited about taxes. My parents are seriously gross.










Notes:

- When River refers to "Granddad" she means Francine's stepfather, Malcolm Landgraab IV. We all know what his "business" involves and why Francine might not want to discuss it with her 13-year-old. ;)

- Elijah is Fortune aspiration, LTW Business Tycoon, turned on by blond hair and cooking skill but turned off by logic skill.

- Tamara is Family aspiration, LTW Marry off 6 children, turned on by formal wear and glasses but turned off by blond hair.

- Jihoon's LTW is 50 dream dates and my rough count suggests that he's had about 16. He's nearly an elder, so if he has any hope of making it to 50 he and Francine pretty much do need to spend all day making out in their pajamas!

- Next up: College update! Hopefully I'll get a little more caught up on profiles as well.

Round 7 Part 8: Paradisio (2053-2057)

Donte is 45, Gretchen is 38, Emerson is 10, and Shelley is 7.

"Let It Go"

narrated by Emerson Whitfill 

You guys would legitimately not believe how sickeningly cute and boring my life is.

I mean, I hang out with the neighborhood kids...

I play with my sister...

I go to school. That's it.

I think even my dad is bored sometimes--at any rate, he keeps switching jobs. He was a scientist a few years ago, but now he's a chef, and I think that's his fourth or fifth career. I think Mom's on her third. She's a doctor now, and before that she was a teacher, and when I was a baby I think she did something else but I don't remember what that was.

They're not bored with each other, though. When they're not at work they have their little hobbies they do together and they talk to each other and I seriously have no idea what they still have to talk about after twenty-something years.

The only really exciting thing is that I finally became a teenager.

Mom took me shopping for new clothes and helped me learn to use makeup, though she rations the stuff out something awful. What's the point of wearing makeup if it's so "natural" and "subtle" that nobody can tell?

Well, I guess there was also the time I broke Dad's new candy machine, but that was not so much "exciting" as "new carpet coming out of your allowance." Good thing I have a big allowance!

Notes:

1. I played this household in April of 2013. I'm really just churning out these updates so I can move on to actual recent stuff. All my notes say is that Gretchen became Education Minister at some point this round, rolled the LTW to become Chief of Staff, and got a job as a surgeon. 

2. Emerson is Romance with the LTW to have 20 Loves. Ugh. She's turned on by formalwear and cleaning skill but turned off by cooking skill. I guess she wants somebody who will clean up nice, put on a suit, and take her out to a fancy restaurant!

3. You might notice that the names up top don't have links to profiles. That's because my toddler apparently decided his New Year's resolution involved staying up until 1 a.m. and/or screaming for no apparent reason in the middle of the night. So blogging time has been scarce. I'm working on the profiles and should have them up and linked in the next few days if anyone cares.

Round 7 Part 7: Riedmayer-Todd Estate (2053-2057)

Edith is 61 years old, Thomas is 51, Todd is 19, Fritz is 15, Charles is 12

"Mine"

narrated by Thomas Dai

Well, Todd went to college a while back.

So now it's just Edith and me and the two younger boys at home.

And sometimes I swear the house is empty, with how quiet it is, and then I find them both sitting in their school uniforms and studying! I sure never did that much studying when I was a teenager.

The only real excitement we've had is when some guy tried to steal our car, but even that wasn't a big deal--the alarm went off, a cop showed up, and the wannabe thief got hauled off to jail.

I was reluctant to leave them after that, but Edith really wanted to go on a sort of delayed honeymoon--we never got one when we were first married--so we went.

I still think we might as well have stayed home. We spent most of the time watching TV.

And *ahem* taking naps.

Edith says she had a great time relaxing, though.

And I can't say I minded having a chance to get caught up on the latest novel.

Plus, we got to eat things that weren't our cooking or takeout pizza! We aren't either of us great cooks, so that was definitely nice.

But as much as I enjoyed the time with just Edith, I was glad to come back to our boys at the end.

Notes:

1. For those of you just tuning in: Thomas is not the biological father of Edith's kids, but the two younger boys were 3 and not-yet-born when their father left and about 6 and 3 when Thomas came along, so he's the only dad they've ever known.

2. My favorite thing about having custom hairs in my game is that I can do different shades of gray for elders. You might have noticed in my last update that Joan and Greg had dark gray hair while Beata (15 years older and a natural blond) had pure white hair. In this update, I feel like Edith's darker hair helps play down the age gap between her and Thomas. He is quite a bit younger, but not so much that she should have white hair while his is still red!

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.