Week Five Part Ten: Dejackome-Seifert

I was really creative with the new lot names this round. My husband was doing something else; he's the one who comes up with good names.

 

Timothy Seifert, 32 years old*. Aspiration: Knowledge. Lifetime want: Become a Prestidigitator. Astrological sign: Virgo.

Jeannie Dejackome, 24 years old. Aspiration: Knowledge. Lifetime want: Become Head of SCIA. Astrological sign: Aquarius.

*I am basing Tim's age on the fact that he appeared at the end of this post. Pretend he was on the 15-year plan. (Actually, 15 years to get the equivalent of a doctorate isn't too shabby and I always assume my Sims graduate with doctorates since they can get job as surgeons and stuff. That's why I'm also okay with my playables being gone from the 'hood for 7 "years" when they go to college.)

Jeannie is the second (adopted) daughter of founder Rivka Dejackome. And that's all the family tree you're going to get, since Jeannie's fiance, Timothy, is a former townie.

Well, I'm Timothy. I guess you want to hear about my life?

It's pretty boring to start with. I was orphaned at a young age, or abandoned, who knows? Anyway, I grew up in a group home, never got adopted, but managed to get decent scholarships to college. That was the first place I felt like I really fit in. I got into the Secret Society and just kind of...hung out. For a decade or so. I was working on my doctorate, so that's something, right?

Then I started hanging out with the kids in ZZE. I went to a toga party or two back when the Riedmayer twins were running the joint, but I really got close to the Whitfill boys. So when they asked me if I'd join I accepted, and when they asked me to stick around and look after their little sisters I accepted again. Jeannie wasn't anybody's little sister, but she was constantly hanging out with Rishell and Veronica, so I got to know her pretty well. And that was when my life really started, I think. We started dating, got engaged when she was about halfway done, and then we finally both graduated.

Needless to say, after stagnating for all those years I was ready to settle down. Jeannie's a few years younger than I am, but she didn't mind the idea of marriage either. So we got married just a few weeks after graduation. It was a pretty small wedding; just her family attended.

Side note: I liked Jeannie with an updo so much that I left it like that after the wedding. I need to take a close-up portrait sometime; she's quite pretty.

Then we went on our honeymoon. We didn't have a lot of cash after getting some land and a little cabin, so we went camping in Three Lakes.

While we were there, we met BJ. He's a Sasquatch. That's the preferred term, though most people call them Bigfoots. Bigfeet? Whatever. Anyway, Sasquatches are people just like everybody else. Hairy people, but why should hairiness matter? He was forced to live in a shack act as a tourist attraction at Three Lakes because there's this law that says Sasquatches can't live in real houses or hold real jobs or anything like that unless they have a host family, and not a lot of people want to be host families for a Sasquatch, because there's so much prejudice.

So we invited BJ to live with us. At first he had to sleep in a tent in the yard. We felt really bad about that; it seemed like he wasn't really moving up in the world. We did let him use our kitchen and bathroom facilities, though.

BJ got a job in politics; he's hoping that he can work to end Sasquatch oppression.

We were still saving up to build on so BJ would have a room when Jeannie found out she was pregnant. We were a little worried about money, but it turns out that we needn't have been. Our fortunes really turned around right after that.

First BJ and I got a lot of promotions at work and managed to rake in some serious cash. 

According to my notes, Tim got promoted to Visionary AND to Prestidigitator this week, making 2 TOCs and 1 LTW. Meanwhile, BJ got promoted to Mayor.

Jeannie worked in the Music track for a while but then got fired due to a chance card, but that was okay because she managed to get into Intelligence finally after that.

Then BJ bought a little shop and started selling things he made with his sewing machine. 

BJ's LTW is "Own 5 Top Level Businesses," which seems odd for a Knowledge Sim, but okay.

Gretchen ended up buying both of these bears...I'm assuming she intended one for Emmy and one for the new baby.

Jeannie helped out with the sewing while she was on maternity leave.

With all that money, we were finally able to build BJ his own room.

Then we made a covered area where people could come and play musical instruments and hang out. It seemed like a strange idea when we came up with it but people seem to love it.

Our daughter, Caitlin Marie Seifert, was born on March 4, 2043. She has a darker complexion like me but she has her mother's brown hair and green eyes. I think she's beautiful, but I might be a little biased.

BJ really took to Caitlin. Jeannie and I made sure to tell him he didn't have to feel obligated to help out, but he insisted on being involved in her care and we let him. Sasquatches can't legally marry, so maybe BJ felt like Caitlin was his only chance at experiencing anything like fatherhood.

We didn't have to wait too long to experience having a newborn in the house again, though. Patrick Antoine Seifert was born on March 30, 2046.

Patrick has blue eyes, but otherwise looks a lot like his sister.

The "cabin" at the end of the week. The downstairs is pretty bare; I think most of the money went to all those musical instruments on the back porch.

The upstairs: BJ's room, a study room, Tim and Jeannie's room, and the nursery.

The outside from the front.

The outside from the back. I worked really hard getting that roof just right, so I'm kind of proud of it.

This was a pretty boring week. Tim, Jeannie, and BJ are all Knowledge aspiration, so they were pretty happy to just get skill points all week. And the glut of skill points meant a glut of promotions, so now the Dejackome-Seifert-Bigfoot family is sitting pretty financially, despite being one of the newer households.

Week Five Part Nine: Lothlorien

Francine (Riedmayer) Whitfill, 37 years old. Aspiration: Knowledge. Lifetime want: Become World-Class Ballet Dancer. Astrological sign: Virgo.
Jihoon Whitfill, 30 years old. Aspiration: Pleasure. Lifetime want: Have 50 Dream Dates. Astrological sign: Cancer.
Lauren Whitfill, 2 years old. Astrological sign: Virgo.

Fran is the third of Beata Riedmayer-Landgraab's six daughters (and the youngest of the ten founders, having been a toddler when she moved to Prosperity Plains). She is very much the middle child of the family--she never had much in common with the twins, who were 10 years older than she was, but she also didn't have much in common with the Landgraab kids, who were all at least 10 years younger than she was. (Note: When composing the intro I realized that Fran should have been born in 2002, not 2003. I'm not going to go back and edit the family trees in the old posts, but I've fixed it now.)

 

Jihoon is the third and youngest (adopted) son of founder Larita Whitfill. His older brothers both married earlier in this round, so Larita is starting to get a decent number of grandchildren, though she'll most likely never hit the 20 grandchildren impossible want. (She's dead, anyway, so it wouldn't have counted.)

Oh, hello. Just let me finish this set and I'll be with you.

Yeah, it's not easy to look like this when you're past 50 and have been pregnant three times, especially...oh, they aren't caught up on that? Okay. Where should I start? During my second pregnancy? Okay, here we go.

Jihoon and I had been married for about six years and our first child, Lauren Elise, was not quite 3. We named her Lauren as an oblique tribute to Jihoon's late mother, Larita. Then her middle name is after Elise Kules, my best friend from college. Lauren was--still is--absolutely the light of our lives; it was just a given that we'd try for another. I mean, I didn't want a huge family like my sister Joan but I wasn't against babies either and Jihoon and I...well, we were--still are--very much in love. So we let nature take its course and found ourselves expecting again.

Our second daughter was born on May 5, 2040, just 9 days before Lauren's birthday. We named her Rishell Veronica after Jihoon's sisters. (Rishell was also my best friend growing up and is still a very dear friend. It's because of her that Jihoon and I met.) Anyway, we decided to call her River for short. It's a little corny, I know, but there aren't a lot of good nicknames out there for Rishell and we didn't want her to get mixed up with her aunt all the time.

With two kids, money was kind of tight, so Jihoon was working really hard to get a promotion. (He worked as a teacher at the time.) He really struggled with some of the material he had to learn, so I'd help him out. Teaching was never really a good fit for him, but it gave us a steady income when we needed it most. I really appreciate that he worked so hard at it so that I could be home with our daughters sometimes and pursue my dancing career other times.

Before we knew it, Lauren was in kindergarten and River was toddling around everywhere. The two of them loved playing at the activity table we bought for them...Lauren favored the blocks, while River loved to color from the moment she could hold a crayon. I could have watched them for hours. I have five sisters myself, and I get along well with all of them, but other than the twins we're all so far apart in age we never experienced this sort of thing. I'm glad my daughters get to experience it.

Jihoon and I hadn't been doing anything to prevent it, but it still took more than four years before I got pregnant again. I was just a few weeks shy of 38 when River was born, so maybe that had something to do with it...my mom has told me that she struggled to get pregnant after Mal was born, and she was just shy of 38 then too. Funny how that happens sometimes.

When I was about 6 months along, our house was broken into! The thief got away, but at least the cop scared him off before he could take anything. And we all slept through the whole thing...I'm glad, too! It was terrifying enough to have a cop wake me up to tell me that there had been a burglar in my house!

Jihoon and I made sure to spend plenty of time with the girls during my pregnancy. They had just turned 8 and 5 respectively, old enough to worry about being displaced by a younger sibling. We made sure to reassure them that we would still have time for them afterwards.

River is in the green dress and Lauren is in the blue.

What we didn't know at the time was that I was carrying twins! It somehow went undetected right up until delivery. I gave birth to my son and thought I was done, but then contractions started up again and next thing I knew I had a boy and a girl. The twins were born on June 1, 2045. We named them Elijah Reed and Tamara Quinn. (Elijah is an oblique tribute to my grandfather, Elwood, and Reed is derived from my maiden name. Tamara is just a name we liked, while Quinn is after my great-uncle Quinton, who was like another grandfather to me.)

Elijah is the one on the floor (poor thing); Tamara is in Fran's arms.

Even though our lives were consumed with taking care of the babies, Lauren and River seemed to adjust well to being big sisters. They could play together at that activity table for hours without needing any kind of adult intervention.

Again, River in the green dress and Lauren in the blue dress.

My family came over a lot as well to help out with the babies. Maggie looks really excited to be an aunt, doesn't she? Malcolm doesn't look so excited to be a step-grandpa, but he's actually great with the kids.

Here's another picture of Maggie and Elijah.

And here's one of Mom with Tamara. She just loves being a grandmother and will drop by all the time just to visit. I think she likes it because she can go home and get a full night's rest afterwards. *grin*

Marion was there too, but she spent the entire time on the ballet barre.

At one point we invited the headmaster of the private school over in the hopes of getting Lauren and River admitted. Unfortunately, things were just too chaotic with the twins and a nanny and my family and all, so they didn't get admitted. Jihoon made sure to pay extra attention to me afterwards so I didn't get depressed. It was a little discouraging, but in our defense we had been blindsided by twins in between when we made the appointment and when the headmaster arrived. Things were just a little out of control.

Jihoon also looks slightly drunk. I bet that wouldn't help get one's kids into private school. 

Despite all the chaos, I wouldn't trade my children for anything in the world.

House pictures! The downstairs is still very unfinished, because they don't have a lot of money.

The upstairs is much closer to being finished...there's a master bath, a nursery, a room for the older girls, a hobby room over the garage, and three bathrooms.

I still love the outside of this house. I think it's one of my best houses.

Several notes:

1. I didn't start noticing "bolts" of attraction between Sims until recently, thanks to reading about it on other Sim blogs. Jihoon and Francine would be doomed in most neighborhoods because they have ZERO bolts. Yet they're an absolutely adorable couple. Whenever I slip in Ruling With An Iron Fist (my preferred play style) Jihoon will immediately go and give Fran a tender kiss. Seriously, it's pretty much the only autonomous action he ever does.

(Relatedly, Jihoon has two bolts for Elise Kules and Fran has two bolts for Darius Kules. Too bad; I'm not doing a Sim version of Wife Swap.)

2. In Sims 3 I think Jihoon would have the Loser trait, poor dear. He seriously takes FOREVER to get skills and friends. It could just be that he seems simpleminded because he's surrounded by Knowledge Sims, though. (His wife is Knowledge, obviously. Then two of his four siblings and both of his sisters-in-law are also Knowledge.) But seriously. FOR-EV-ER.

3. I didn't know until I played this house that the cop could lose a fight with the burglar. At least nothing got stolen and nobody seems to really care, unlike Jihoon's sisters, who were furious for ages and ages after Whitfill Ranch got broken into while they lived there.

4. You might notice that in that picture at the table they're all eating berry pie, NOT cheesecake. The twins totally blindsided me too. Especially since I got a bit of a glitch when they were born...Elijah was born as normal and I got a dialog box prompting me to name him, which I did. Then Francine dropped him on the floor and wouldn't pick him up. I was worried I had a glitchy baby until suddenly Francine clutched her abdomen and spun around AGAIN. Tamara appeared and I got another completely separate dialog box prompting me to name her.

I'm through Week Six in this house (as you might be able to tell) and haven't had any more glitchiness from the twins, so I'm starting to breathe a bit easier.

5. I can't remember if the Landgraab family visit in this post was by invitation or not (I think it was), but Beata really does drop by uninvited all the time. (She also does it with her daughter Joan, but not Edith or Millie so far. Weird.)

6. I invited the headmaster before the twins were born, figuring it wouldn't be too hard to handle one baby and a headmaster visit. (Ha ha ha.) The twins were born Sunday morning or perhaps early afternoon. Fran went to work that afternoon for some reason. Probably she was promotable and I sent her because they desperately needed the money, but I don't remember now. Anyway, she had a want to get River into private school and a fear of her being rejected. She got back right before the headmaster left and I could tell the visit wasn't going to pan out, so I had Jihoon ask her on a date so that her fears rerolled. I'm a chicken. (Also, that date ended up being just Great, not Dream, which means it did nothing to advance Jihoon's lifetime want. It was not a banner day in Lothlorien.)

Week Five Part Eight: Paradisio

Donte Whitfill, 31 years old. Aspiration: Knowledge. Lifetime Want: Become Education Minister. Astrological sign: Aquarius.

Gretchen Dejackome, 24 years old. Aspiration: Knowledge. Lifetime Want: Become Criminal Mastermind. Astrological sign: Aries

Donte's family tree. He is the second (adopted) son of founder Larita Whitfill. The Whitfill family is slowly growing from its humble beginnings. 

Gretchen's family tree. She is the oldest (adopted) daughter of founder Rivka Dejackome. The Dejackome clan is currently the smallest in the neighborhood. (Jeannie is engaged to her college sweetheart, Timothy Seifert; they will star in Week Five Part Ten.)

Immediately after graduating college, Gretchen Dejackome followed the example of her housemate, Millie Landgraab, and cohabitated with a Whitfill boy instead of moving back home.

They held the wedding the following winter. Since the weather was poor they set up an arch in the living room; fortunately there was just enough room for all the guests.

After the ceremony they cut the cake.

Then they cleared away the chairs and had some dancing.

Then it was time for their honeymoon. They decided to go to the Far East instead of having a tropical honeymoon like Blake and Millie.

Once they returned they quickly settled back into their studies.

(Note to my fellow simmers: A Knowledge/Knowledge pairing creates possibly the most boring marriage ever. Also, please note that the last picture is Donte's official "max all skills" pic. Yeah, I was triple-speeding and missed the memory icon, so you get a thought-bubble.)

After a couple of years Gretchen found out she was pregnant, so she occupied herself for 6 months with learning all of Donte's recipes and tinkering instead of working for Malcolm Landgraab's...imports business.

Meanwhile, Donte was appointed Education Minister. He enjoyed the work, but soon decided that it was time to try something new and took a position as an architect. Gretchen didn't mind his career-hopping, since he made handsome salaries no matter where he worked. 

(LTW #1 and TOC #2 for Donte. New LTW: Become City Planner. I let him go for it even though I only get points for 1 LTW and 2 TOCs)

Their daughter, Emerson, was born a few days before Christmas, almost exactly 3 years after her parents' wedding.

Gretchen was able to go right back to work and soon was as high in the business as Malcolm Landgraab himself. 

(I think it's funny that the Criminal Mastermind is queasy.)

She and Donte decided that there wasn't any reason they shouldn't try for a second child as soon as possible. Emerson wasn't yet 2 when Gretchen found out she was pregnant again, due in the springtime. 

(Emerson and her sibling are 3 days apart, which means 3 calendar years, but thanks to Random.Org and December birthdays I sometimes get 2-year gaps.)

Random cute: Emmy is a tiny female version of her father, and they love each other.

Despite all the busyness of careers and family, Gretchen and Donte still found time to spend together. And Donte still remembered that salmon was her favorite.

Donte: "That outfit looks lovely on you, darling!"

(I was so irritated that Gretchen didn't get pregnant in time to have her second baby by the end of the round. She gave birth first thing in Week Six. You'll have to wait until then to see the baby.)

House shots time! 

Donte and Gretchen did a major renovation of his bachelor pad once they got back from their honeymoon. The downstairs is very bare because they couldn't afford furniture after putting in the pool and everything.

The upstairs is a little better. There's room for 4 bedrooms and 4 baths; right now there's a master suite (with balcony access), a nursery with a potty chair in the attached bathroom, an office, an empty bedroom, and two empty bathrooms.

And here's the exterior. I was going for a bit of an Unhappy Hipsters vibe.

This is what I think of as the Wall of Awesome. So far it has Donte's Tinkering plaque and Donte and Gretchen's college diplomas. Eventually I aspire to have all the possible hobby plaques (I think there are 10) and there will probably also be many college diplomas belonging to future generations of Whitfills.

And this is just a detail shot that I love. The bouquet is from Donte and Gretchen's first date; the souvenirs are from their honeymoon.