Saturday, March 20, 2010

Hoppes 2 (R9)

Emmett Hoppes is a freshly minted graduate of Sim State and bach-ing it up on his own this round. How will he do with his girlfriend, Victoria still off at school? Lets find out... ((This will be short and sweet... you know how single sims are))

Hoppes (Lot 14) Monday-Saturday
Pictured: Emmett Hoppes
Jar Card 63: Throw a theme party

Emmett settled into an unfinished house in Silvervale and managed to get a mid-level job in the Artist career track.

With his love of painting he figured it would give him a good graphics background to break into the game design industry one day. Plus... he was good at it

The job not only required him to be good at painting, but he also had to be social with people. Emmett frequently visited community gathering places to meet people and talk about his art

The socializing paid off and Emmett was able to earn another promotion

To celebrate the promotion, Emmett decided to throw a little party so his family and friends could see the house that he was working on fixing up. Plus it would be nice to be able to watch the big game together

After the game, everyone stuck around and caught up. They were impressed how well Emmett seemed to be doing so soon after college

The party turned out to be a great success and the family was glad to be able to catch up

Of course, Victoria ended up spending the night after all the other guests left

Victoria left the next day and Emmett headed off to work. Unfortunately for him he made a very costly mistake and took on a project that was just too large for him at the point in his career

Scoring: 0 points this round

Household Net-Worth: 36,875

((Yeah, like I said, short and sweet round. Emmett didn't do much other than skill and socialize for promotions. I built Emmett a victorian style house but the land and the shell of the house cost almost his entire 20k so it's not decorated or furnished too much yet. The party was nice and Emmett got to socialize with his family. The 50k penalty didn't really hurt too much because Emmett had less than 1000 simoleans. I ended up spending his money immediately after he got it so the 50k took him down to 0 but really it wasn't that much anyway. Just a few bloopers... while Emmett was out at a community lot, Columbia Devivio really had it out for this townie, they constantly were picking on each other

Moral of the story: Don't mess with Columbia. This is the last house on the playlist this round so we'll be cycling back to the Pushard's next and the beginning of Round 10 -- woot!))

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Devivio 5 (R9)

Last time we saw Brad and Tessa was at University. Tessa discovered she was pregnant again and had to drop out of college. Brad finished up his degree and moved back to Silvervale. Lets see how this fledgling family is adjusting to life in the real world

Devivio (Lot 13) Monday-Saturday
Pictured (from left) Brad Devivio holding Carmen Ramirez, Tessa Ramirez
Jar Card 23: Dance by yourself or with Family Members

Despite his disappointment with his daughter dropping out of college, Checo Ramirez made sure to set Tessa and Brad up in a nice house in Silvervale.

Brad wasn't able to find a job in the Education field right away, but since they needed money, Brad took a job as a field agent in Sofia's SCIA office.

Because of Brad's job most of the child rearing esponsibilities fell to Tessa. Tessa was pleased though because Carmen was a very happy and amenable child, she always listened to her parents. She never fussed when they took her to the potty chair

and she loved learning anything she could from Tessa

She also loved the music that her parents played on the piano, she would sit there and wiggle and dance all day as long as they were playing, it was her favorite thing to do

Brad managed to do well in his new position. He got a chance card and was able to make a good impression right off the bat

On the off chance that he had a day off of work, Brad liked to invite friends and relatives over to socialize. One afternoon he invited over his cousin, Marty and his girlfriend, Sierra

Things were going fine until Marty though Sierra was getting too friendly with Brad. He wasn't pleased with her

Needless to say, Marty and Sierra headed home after the little incident

Carmen was growing so fast, it was soon time for her birthday

Carmen grew up into a gorgeous child with characteristics of both of her parents

Carmen Ramirez

If possible Carmen was even more playful as a child than she had been as a toddler. Much to her parents chagrin, she would always be jump-roping in the living room

She also still really enjoyed dancing around when either Brad or Tessa were tickling the ivories

With all the activity the little girl did, often to her parents delight, she would crash on the couch easily before bedtime

One night, after tucking Carmen in for the night, Tessa started to feel the familiar contractions, but it was more painful than she remembered it to be when she had Carmen

Tessa gave birth to two bouncing babies a girl named Nina and a boy named Xavier

Xavier favored his mothers coloring

Xavier Ramirez

And Nina favored her fathers coloring with the black hair of her grandma Sofia

Nina Ramirez

Brad adored his growing family, he had gained so many lifetime aspiration points that it was time for him to choose a secondary aspiration. During all of Tessa's pregnancies she had silly cravings, Brad was beginning to think that he cravings had worn off on him and he chose Grilled Cheese.

Brad's very large family was definitely a help while raising the twins. Grandma Sofia came over frequently to help Brad and Tessa care for Xavier and Nina

Having babysitters close by also allowed Brad and Tessa to have some alone time, something they didn't get nearly enough of

Finally one afternoon Brad found a position in his dream career of Education

Unfortunately the university required a somewhat lengthy commute so he wasn't home nearly as much in the daytime.

While the twins were napping, and Carmen was at school, Tessa took time to catch up with her friends on the phone. She was still usually chatting away when Carmen came home from school

Tessa was exhausted by the time Brad got home from work. Homework help usually fell to Brad because Tessa went to be as soon as he got home to relieve her of her stay-at-home-mom duties

As time tends to do, it flew by and before they knew it, it was time for Xavier and Nina to transition into toddlerhood

Xavier Ramirez

Nina Ramirez

They didn't think it was possible, but things were even more hard to handle with the twins as toddlers. Tessa implored Brad to hire a nanny to help her out during the day while he was at work. Reluctantly, given the poor reputation of the local nanny service, Brad hired some daytime help for his fiance

On the first day of the nanny's employment, Tessa couldn't have been more happy that Brad had agreed to hire her. Tessa found out that she would be expecting again, which would inevitably mean she would be ill prepared to deal with the twins

Unfortunately for the young family, it didn't appear that the nanny was any better equipped or trained to deal with two toddlers either

Scoring: 2 points (1 for each of the twins)

Household Net-Worth: 73,111

((Well I've made up my mind to try for the 10 kids LTW with Brad and Tessa, though it's not starting out too well and I might change my mind, we'll see... The twins are definitely a handful and with Tessa being almost perma-pregnant it's difficult for her to watch over them. I need a few non-pregnant days so I can get these two married! Back in my noob days when I gave Sofia a hairstyle in the custom bin her custom genetics carried over. I didn't realize that this was the same thing with her sons. I had changed the girls' genetics to just make them have black hair, but not Brad and Franks so I was surprised when Sofia's custom hair showed up on Nina. I have since gone into SimPE and changed all the genetics so they just reflect a color and not custom hair. As an aside with the Marty and Sierra thing... they came over I was watching Tessa and Carmen and totally not paying attention to what was happening outside. I guess Sierra flirted with Brad and Marty got pissed? No clue... Anyway, I'm glad Tessa was busy training Carmen some skill otherwise she surely would have gone ballistic too. We're off to the last house on the playlist for Round 9 -- Emmett Hoppes))

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Cormier (R9)

Last round at the Cormiers, Ricky made an honest woman out of Janet and married her in the park. Ricky got a job in Politics and Janet in Gaming, her preferred career path. Unfortunately Janet wasn't able to work too much at her Gamer job before she realized she was pregnant. Janet paid the matchmaker $10 for a cheap date with a man named Justice who later got shocked (literally) by Vinaya ((this still makes me LOL!)). Vinaya grew up into a teen declaring a Knowledge aspiration with a desire to become Head of the SCIA like her grandma, Sofia. At the end of the round Janet gave birth to a bouncing baby boy that they named Mahran. Lets see how this delightful family fares this week.

Cormier (Lot 12) Saturday-Thursday
Pictured (from left): Vinaya Devivio, Ricky Cormier, Janet Cormier holding Mahran Cormier
Jar Card 38: Play with a Paper Airplane

As a family sim, Ricky was smitten with Mahran. He was always playing and fussing with him

Mahran wasn't going to be a baby for long though, it was time for him to enter toddlerhood

Mahran Cormier - Libra

Of course, Ricky took almost full charge of teaching Mahran his skills

With Ricky doting on Mahran, the ladies of the house had a lot of free time. Vinaya and Janet took advantage of the quiet and had a girl to girl chat

Janet thought it was time for Vinaya to look for a job.

Vinaya had off on weekends so she was pretty much free to do as she pleased. She decided to visit the new boardwalk that was built down the road ((this is an idea inspired by Twoflower's Stay-cation lots... I didn't particularly care for her Twikki themed lot when I put it in my hood, so I built my own))

Despite being fall it was still relatively warm, Vinaya decided to dig in the sand and see if she could find any trinkets that were dredged up by the construction of the boardwalk

She also watched the firedancer performing on the beach

That afternoon Ricky brought home a promotion to Judge, all the schmoozing really started to pay off for him

Monday came pretty quickly and soon it was time for Vinaya to head off to her new job in the intelligence field. She decided that it would help her look more inconspicuous if she took her baby brother with her ((she just walked right out of the house with him!))

Apparently taking Mahran to work with her helped her to charm her superiors because she came home with a promotion

Luckily she remembered to bring Mahran home with her

When she wasn't working, Vinaya was usually out of the house having fun and meeting people. She met a particularly cute boy named Kennedy Smith and they started dating

Kennedy liked Vinaya a lot and even gave her her first kiss

While Vinaya was out on her date with Kennedy, Janet returned with a big promotion. She finally made it to the top of the Gamer career, achieving her lifetime want

The promotion allowed Janet to maximize her Lifetime aspiration meter as well

After Janet got home, it was time to celebrate another birthday for Mahran.

Mahran grew up into a very handsome young man, closely resembling his sister

Mahran Cormier

Mahran was excited to start elementary school, however the snow prevented him and Janet from heading out to school the next day

Mahran didn't let the snow get him down, he was just as playful and fun-loving as his sister. He invited a friend over for a snowball fight

and passed the day making snow angels in the knee deep snow

Scoring: 5 points (1 point for Janet reaching TOC Gamer, 1 point for Janet achieving her LTW, 3 points for Janet maximizing her LTA meter)

Household Net-Worth: 50,443

((I love this family so much, they are just so endearing and wonderful. Mahran is adorable! I was really scared with Vinaya took him off to the carpool with her, his needs just kept dropping while he was at work with Vinaya and I couldn't get him back even with the teleporter shrub. Needless to say, I was relieved when he popped out of the carpool when it returned home. Vinaya is having a hard time finding a boyfriend. She likes Kennedy OK, but they only have 2 bolts, I'm kinda holding out for a 3 bolter for her, though getting Kennedy's elf ears into the hood might be neat. Janet's promotion finally gave the household enough funds to completely renovate the house. I'll post some pics next round. It looks pretty good IMO. And now to the jar card:

Ricky was highly amused by the paper airplane, lol. We're off to a new lot next to check up on Brad and Tessa, stay tuned))