SerendipiTeen: Week 4

Sunday morning of week 4 kicks off with Serendipity having to clean up the mess from all of the previous parties of the weekend.

And then to add insult to injury, I make her throw another party. (Party #9). Sorry sweet cheeks. You wanted to be popular. Parties are the way, obvi.

Serendipity: “I AM popular. I have like two dozen friends. Even my exes love me!”

Well…maybe it’s because of your awesome parties?

*scores another Silver party*

Slightly-better-than-average parties, anyway?

And that evening, she heads off to her second shift as a babysitter. She nabs a promotion to Nanny even. You go, girl! Way to watch those kids! I guess you’ve been caring for yourself long enough that it’s probably easy.

After a late night baby-sitting, Serendipity’s dragging a little in the morning. She whips up some omelets (Recipe #12), but they turn out pretty poorly. Still, she chokes one down before school anyway. Her cooking skill is around 7 or 8 at this point, not sure how she’s messing up omelets, but whatevs.

After school, Serendipity whips out a painting, then calls a club meeting. They work on their homework together…and Aunt Patience shocks me by autonomously coming over and helping her with her work. I swear they’re getting less dysfunctional. I can’t control Patience, and while I can control Serendipity, if she chooses negative interactions then her character values take a hit and I’m working on building those. We’ll just assume Patience is playing the long game and realizes that when Serendipity hits adulthood, it’ll be up to her whether or not she wants to still monetarily support Patience.

Tuesday she gets a little bit of writing done. A very little bit. I’ve decided I’m gonna just buckle down and do all of those books once I knock out the rest of the goals.

And so we throw a party. (Party #10) To switch it up, we make it a dinner party. This proves to be easier, as we pretty much reach Silver right after calling everyone to a meal. Too bad I hadn’t tried these earlier. Ah well. Serendipity got to slack for most of the party, working on another painting while chatting with guests. We ended up with a hanging pot rack, which we sold because it was bigger than our micro kitchen. LOL

Wednesday comes and she manages to both eat and sell off some flowers before school. I also have her switch her job to retail worker so we can get a shift of that in tomorrow.

After school, during our collection run, she gave some attention to that lovely tree at the end of the street and then decided to explore.

We were off to Sylvan Glade! She hunted up frogs and spent a while fishing (Fish #5 – a tetra – joined us. He’ll get a punny name when I feel more creative.) But it was a school night, so we couldn’t stay long. Gotta keep those grades up!

Thursday she used some of the extra fish she had fished to make a Poke bowl (Recipe #13.) This is not the technique most would have used but hey, you do you, Serendipity.

That night was her retail shift. If you look closely behind her elbow you’ll see that what was once a full and lush snapdragon plant is now just a pile of dirt. This has been happening to me in both of my saves since the update at the beginning of the month. Does anyone else get disappearing plants? They sometimes turn into a dirt pile, or sometimes they’ll look to be just a leaf on the ground (like for the herbs). They still have the fertilize & water options, they even still require weeding, but while they’re disappeared they don’t grow anything. Which makes this doubly sucky since that particular snapdragon is spliced with strawberry and sometimes gives us a dragonfruit. Or at least it did, until it was disappeared. *sigh*

Enough of my whining though. Serendipity has a decent shift at her retail job, but switches to manual labor anyway, then starts on another painting.

Friday morning, she whips up some Pan de muerto (which turns out to be Recipe #14 and thus not needed to be different but oh well.) She settles in to fill her belly and watch some Food Network til the time comes to teleport to school.

After school.. another party! (Party #11) The photo is snapped from this angle because then you can see that our frogs are officially over the count needed for a collection. Yay!

She’s even not totally exhausted as the party wraps up (another Silver. At least we’re consistent.) so she whips out this Flirty painting cuz Billie had her feeling some kinda way. 😉

Saturday morning and she’s off to mow lawns.

She has now officially worked a shift at every teenage job I have access to. Hooray! And then I made her make a cake (technically Recipe #15), with the theory that she would be ready for the party that I’m about to make her throw.

Party #12 was another where it was SOCLOSE to gold. People ate the food, people drank the drinks, people danced, people talked, and then with 40 minutes to go the game pulls up the “have 4 people eat cake” goal. “Ha!” I thought. “I have planned for this moment!” I went to the fridge to pull out our cake – our cake that was baked immediately before the party started – to find only two slices are left. All these guests apparently just went and helped themselves to our fridge cake, nevermind the food left out on the counter for them. Did any of those SIX PEOPLE count on our goal? No they did not, since they finished their cake before the goal showed up. And with two slices left, no way could I finish that. So it was Silver. Again. On the bright side, I only have one more party to go. Still, I’m not having her do it today. She cleaned up, did her homework, and went to bed.

Here’s how she sits at the end of Week 4:
1. Max a part time job – Check.
2. Have a BFF – Check.
3. Have at least 4 boyfriends/girlfriends – Check.
4. Be friends with 13 people at the same time – Check.
5. Earn $13,000 – Check.
6. Collect 13 different collectibles – Check. (She has 16 different frogs. Also 11 of the MySims dolls, and 9 different fossils.)
7. Catch 13 different fish – 5 down, 8 to go.
8. Write 13 books – Well… she started book 1.
9. Paint 13 pictures – 10 finished and displayed. (One is a duplicate, which bugs me, but meh.)
10. Cook 13 different recipes – Check.
11. Gain 13 skill points – Check. (9 Cooking; 7 Gardening & Painting; 6 Charisma; 4 Video Gaming & Logic; 3 in Comedy, Dancing, Fishing, Handiness, Mixology, & Programming; 2 in Gourmet Cooking & Writing; 1 each in Fitness & Photography. So…61?)
12. Grow and maintain 13 plants – Check.
13. Throw 13 successful parties – Only 1 left!

Optional goals:
Prestigious Callings: You want to go to a fancier, more expensive college. Collect $31,000 (+15 points). – Check. Am actually at $33,523.
Jack of All Trades: You want to dip your toes into EVERYTHING, so you shall. Attend at least one shift for every base-game part-time job available (+20 points). – Check. Maxed the barista, then did 1-2 shifts of all the other jobs. I wasn’t sure which were basegame, so I just did them all. LOL
Well Rounded: You know better than to learn from your caregiver/parent, so you’ve started teaching yourself the rules to life. By the end of the challenge qualify for at least 3 of the 5 positive parenthood traits (+15 points). – 2 of 3 are there (Manners and Responsibility), and another 2 are close (Emotional Control and, thanks mainly to chance cards, Conflict Resolution.)

SerendipiTeen: Week 3

Poor Patience. I never know what to do with my bottom arm when I sleep on my side either.

We do start Sunday out with a party. (Party #4) Patience amuses me by immediately heading out to the stereo to boogie. Work it, gurl.

No one was drinking the drinks Serendipity had made and set out to reach the goal of having 3 drinks drank, so I started having her chug them. People kept coming to chat with her which interrupted and she was two thirds of the way through the final drink when the party timer ended. Ugh, thisclose to a gold party.

And so because I’m stubborn, I immediately threw another party (Party #5). This time I bit the bullet and hired a bartender, hopeful that that would encourage folks to drink. Then of course the goal to drink drinks wasn’t even there, replaced instead by eating food. So Serendipity whipped up some grilled chicken (Recipe #8).

Party goers are odd. This is half a dozen people crammed into our teeny little bathroom.

Serendipity feels the same way I feel about a day full of nothing but parties. And to add to the pout, while people ARE drinking drinks… that never did pop up as a goal. Instead there was a goal to have 4 people eat cake. By the time that came around there wasn’t enough time to have her bake one up and get people to eat it, so.. another stinkin’ Silver party. We’ve sold so many couches.

She DID get Riley to officially be her boyfriend though! (Mate #3) Even if her old boyfriend Calvin did creepily ruin the moment by walking literally through their first kiss.

All the parties meant the fridge was empty Monday morning, so she whips up a quick breakfast of toast & eggs (Recipe #9) and watches some TV while she munches.

No time for a potty break before her shift.. and no promotion during her shift either. *shouts forbidden words* The rest of Monday is pretty uneventful as well, so we cross our fingers for a better Tuesday.

She brings Cassandra home after school Tuesday, and vents about her lack of promotion yet again (seriously, what gives? She’s been on “Excellent” for the past three shifts. If she doesn’t get it in the next day or two, I’m not even gonna feel bad about just cheating it. LOL)

Then she lets her bestie know she hooked up with Riley at the party over the weekend. Cassandra congratulates her on Mr. Right.. or Mr. Right-for-Now, whichever he may be. (Honestly, this is one of the toughest parts for me.. usually all my sims just find happily ever after. I’m so glad there’s just one more breakup to go. LOL)

Yes, that is sun still streaming in the window. She went to bed at 6:30pm. She is GOING to be bright and bouncy for tomorrow’s shift and bring in a promotion, spammit.

And she does!! Apparently fourth time’s the charm.

Since she’s maxed the career, I have her immediately switch jobs. She’s now a fast food worker. (We’re aiming for the optional goal of doing at least one shift of each part-time gig.)

Club meeting after school. She and the other teens do their homeworkand she gets some writing started. Finally.

Since she doesn’t technically work until the next day (she’s in work clothes since she switched careers this morning), she has this evening free and calls over Riley who has been radio silent with her. He came over Sad, and she tried her darnedest to cheer him up.After all, she only called him up to ask him to be Just Friends. Thankfully, he seems on board with that idea and while their romantic bar went down, their friendship bar didn’t budge. Whew.

Serendipity: “Hello, Mr. Repairman? Can you come over and fix the computer that the girl I want to ask out just busted? That’d be great, thanks.”
Billie: “I’mma play it cool and act like I didn’t hear that.”

They head outside to flirt it up, and Riley makes it known that he’s still there.
Riley: “Did, um, did you just flirt with her? She’s a girl though.”
Serendipity: “And I was with a boy and then a girl before I was with you. Your point?”

Riley’s big ole pout face photo-bombing their first kiss was just too irresistible to not include.

Fear not though, in the first shot he was actually “researching plant” and then I think he was pouty because of low needs. This is actually how he reacted to their kiss. It’s a bit crazed, but not a stab-in-the-heart face. LOL Anyway… Serendipity is officially with mate #4, which means I don’t have to have any more breakups. Hallelujer!

Thursday morning she rolled out of bed with a hankering for clam chowder, apparently. Whatever, I don’t judge. (Recipe #10)

She comes home filthy, but I have her do a bit of gardening before showering, because these flowers are where she gets most of her money anyway.

Billie came over too. They way these two look at each other is too cute!

Got our shift at the burger joint knocked out of the way, so now we sign up as a retail worker.

Also, Billie was waiting at the door when Serendipity came home. I know I haven’t shown it, but she really has called or come by almost daily since the beginning. It’s why I figured these two needed to be end game. And so they exchanged promise rings. ❤

Friday morning minestrone, anyone? (Recipe #11).

And a Friday evening party (Party #6), which ends in Silver again.. and also means that Serendipity had to use PTO for her retail shift, cuz I forgot. Ugh. I have her switch to baby-sitter instead. We’ll swing back around for the retail gig next week.

Saturday morning our spliced plant gave us a Dragonfruit, so we officially have 13 different plants! And will have no issues with getting money from here on out. LOL

Welcome to the family, Guppy Love! (Fish #4)

Saturday morning par-tay! (Party #7.) If I had had literally two more sim minutes, this would have been gold, but alas the final goal did not get fulfilled (the fourth person was in the midst of picking up their plate but was not yet eating their food. Seriously. THAT close.) And so I did the only logical thing.

I immediately threw another party. LOL (Party #8). Seriously, the other guests hadn’t even left the lot yet.. which worked, since I just invited the same crew again. I lucked into some goals that I could control (have people eat food? Cool, I’ll drag something from the fridge and call them to the meal. Have people play games together? Alright, I’ll buy a game table and select “play with…” We danced by the stereo, I dragged over a MySims doll to get people in a playful mood.) Finally it was down to the final goal, where it needed 3 people to be Flirty at once. I could only directly affect Serendipity and Billie.. but then I had an idea. They took a selfie (adorbs!)

Said selfie had a Flirty ambience, so I hung that on the wall and invited the crew to view it together.

Success! A Gold party! FINALLY!! Only took me 8 tries. And with that, Serendipity was off to her shift as a baby-sitter. And I sold the bar, because I no longer care to kill myself trying to get a Gold level party. Once is enough.. ha! I’ll keep the game table though. Week 3 officially ends when she gets home from her shift.

Here’s how she sits at the end of Week 3:
1. Max a part time job – Check.
2. Have a BFF – Check.
3. Have at least 4 boyfriends/girlfriends – Check.
4. Be friends with 13 people at the same time – Check.
5. Earn $13,000 – Check. ($13,323. Bless you Gold party reward.)
6. Collect 13 different collectibles – So close. We have 11 frog species, 8 each of the MySims dolls & fossils.
7. Catch 13 different fish – 4 down, 9 to go.
8. Write 13 books – Well… I started book 1.
9. Paint 13 pictures – 6 finished and displayed. (One is a duplicate, which bugs me, but meh.)
10. Cook 13 different recipes – 11 cooked.
11. Gain 13 skill points – Check. (7 Cooking; 6 Gardening & Painting; 5 Charisma; 4 Video Gaming; 3 in Fishing, Logic, and Programming; 2 in Comedy, Dancing, Handiness, Mixology, and Writing; 1 each in Fitness, Gourmet Cooking, and Photography. So 48 total. I think. My Math skill is pretty low. 😉 )
12. Grow and maintain 13 plants – Check.
13. Throw 13 successful parties – 8 done, 5 left.

So.. lots of writing in the future for her, and still a good chunk of fishing & painting. Plus 5 parties.

I’m also attempting some of the optional challenges. Going to try to send her to at least one shift of every part time job. (2 jobs left to go) Going to try and get her 3 positive character traits (has full green on both manners and responsibility, and halfway there in emotional control). Maybe I’ll go for maxing 5 skills, and for getting 31K in savings too.

SerendipiTeen: Week 2

Week 2 kicks off with Serendipity gritting her teeth as she fixes the toilet while Aunt Patience insults her face. (Literally. “Insult face” was the action. Ah, the love.)

She does a bit of fishing to catch a couple more fish, adding All About That Bass and Trout of my Mind to our fish collection. (Fishes #2 & #3.)

Calvin hasn’t called, come by, or even texted since that date. After a chat with her bestie Cassandra for advice, Serendipity calls him up and asks to be just friends. He’s not thrilled, and so her wish to be friends is not granted.

Serendipity throws another party. Cassandra reassures her that it will be alright, Calvin will get over it, and she just needs to take her mind off that mess.

Serendipity only half-listens, as she’s staring at Yuki the whole time. She rolls a wish to level her Charisma. I lock it in and take that as the sign she wants to level it with Yuki. 😉 But later, because it’s getting late and she’s about to drop. (Party #2 done.)

After Monday’s shift, Serendipity is proud to get that first promotion! One more and we’ll have maxed out that part-time gig.

And a peek at the yard to show off our growing garden. We now have 12 different types of plants (fruits/veg/herbs go here, and three types of flowers are along the front of the house.) You can also see our three fish bowls… and our new bar, because to get a work promotion she has to reach level 2 mixology. (Plus both of our parties have wanted people to drink drinks, and apparently drinking water from the sink doesn’t count. Maybe we can reach gold one of these times?)

After work on Tuesday, she whips up some BLTs before school. (Recipe #5)

After school Tuesday, she comes home from school with an A.

Serendipity: “And I still have to do homework? What gives?”

As she’s wrapping up her painting #3, Yuki wanders by. Adorable wave is adorable.

Kisses are blown, flirts are made..

Chemistry check successful!

With that, they become officially girlfriends. (Mate #2) Cassandra walks by with a grin. She knew they’d end up going out.

I rearrange the “living room” a bit to cram a cheap TV in there too. Serendipity was pretty constantly tanked on Fun and this way she can watch TV while she eats breakfast before school. Plus it looks like it gives Aunt Patience something to do besides Troll teh Forums. (Her favorite pastime generally.)

Wednesday Serendipity comes home from school Mortified, and heads over to start painting #4 while Winding Down to classical music. The dread in her face when she sees Aunt Patience on her way just says all the “can’t even” that she feels. LOL (Don’t let these pics fool you. Thanks to the micro home relationship building boost, Patience and Serendipity are technically at good friend status.. which throws a wrench into my plan of having them be enemies. But now and then the scenes work with me anyway.)

Serendipity invites the Avant Garde club over after she’s had a bit to calm down.  She’s super excited to see Yuki. (My thinking is that I’ll have this club be my “after school activity.” I’m making her start a gathering twice a week, and has to spend 2 hours focused on “approved activities.”)

And since everyone likes homework so much, the whole dang club gets to help her finish her project. For once, she’ll get to bed on time on a weekday. LOL

The next morning she’s able to leave for work happy.. except for that pesky need-to-pee thing. Thankfully they have a bathroom at work.

After school, she kicks out the second level of Mixology too. Fingers crossed it will mean a promotion tomorrow!

This guy is named Riley. He called her up and asked her out for drinks. It’s not technically “on a date”, so she said yes. He’s a cutie.. and she’s pouty because she’s hungry. Their hangout didn’t last long, since he disappeared off the lot about five sim minutes after I took this picture. Seriously, they didn’t even make it inside.

Back home, Serendipity finds herself thinking of the guy who got away while she sets fire to some pancakes (but thankfully not actually sets a fire. Recipe #6.) After stocking the fridge and eating, she’s off to bed again. This waking-before-dawn stuff is for the birds. Yuki texts her to invite her out.. after she’s already in bed.

Friday comes, and a promotion does not. Ugh. This means at least one more way early weekday. At any rate, Serendipity throws Party #3 (grumble). She lets Yuki know that she’s been thinking and she just doesn’t see how they can be together right now, what with Yuki only wanting to go out after Serendipity already has to be asleep. Yuki’s bummed, but handles it better than Calvin did, and they’re friends again well before the party is over.

A lot of the guests head out to dance…including Aunt Patience, much to Serendipity’s surprise. Aunt Patience seems to be disapproving of herself. LOL

As the party counter is winding down, the final person who needs to hurry up and finish their drink and send us into the gold is.. Aunt Patience. You can probably guess that we finished in the silver. Again. The couch reward was sold.

Serendipity took a quick nap, then dragged herself up to restock the fridge with some pasta primavera (Recipe #7.)

The weight of everything had crashed down on her, and she let her self have a nice cry in bed before drifting off for the night.

Saturday, after some basic maintenance at home (gardening, topping up needs, etc), Serendipity was invited to attend a club gathering at the lounge. We accepted because we were going to host a gathering ourselves anyway, so why not?

While there, she spent lots of time chatting with club members, and of course doing homework. Riley happened to be there too, and she chatted him up and started flirting too.. but he had to go before we could officially lock down the boyfriend status.

Back at home wrapping up the evening, I forgot to throw another party (I totally meant to.) Instead she had a relaxing evening starting on Painting #5. Enh, we’ll work on it next week.

Here’s how she stands on the goals after the second week:
1. Max a part time job – Still not yet, much to my frustration. It really looked like it should have happened this last shift. Should just take one more. Then we’re switching jobs.
2. Have a BFF – Checkaroo! Cassandra Goth is Serendipity’s bestie.
3. Have at least 4 boyfriends/girlfriends – Almost to mate #3.
4. Be friends with 13 people at the same time – Checkaroo! Not sure on count, but she was at 15 when I counted it up two sim days ago.
5. Earn $13,000 – Currently have $3,523.
6. Collect 13 different collectibles – Working on it. We have 7 frog species, 5 different MySims dolls, and 4 varities of fossils.
7. Catch 13 different fish – 3 down, 10 to go.
8. Write 13 books – Still haven’t started. *hides face*
9. Paint 13 pictures – 5 finished and displayed.
10. Cook 13 different recipes – 7 cooked.
11. Gain 13 skill points – Checkaroo! (6 Painting; 5 Cooking; 4 each in Charisma, Gardening, and Video Gaming; 3 in Fishing, Logic, and Programming; 2 in Handiness and Mixology; 1 each in Comedy, Dancing, Fitness, and Gourmet Cooking. So 40 total. Ha! She’s all over the place.)
12. Grow and maintain 13 plants – So close! 12 different ones right now.
13. Throw 13 successful parties – 3 done, 10 left. *cries*

Pretty sure I’m not getting this done in 3 sim-weeks. The 10 parties and 13 books I have left will alone take more than that. Ah well. Fingers crossed for 4, and it’s still fun at least!

 

 

SerendipiTeen: Week 1

I figure the easiest way to do this will be to post a week at a time. Hoping to get it done within three week’s time, but we’ll see. Doing it this way at least helps me keep track of the days. We start on Sunday morning, so our weeks will run Sunday through Saturday.

First things first – under the watchful eye of Aunt Patience, Serendipity snags a job. You’re looking at Willow Creek’s newest barista! Sure it will mean early morning hours, but any extra hours away from the tension at home sound alright.

Then she settles in to do her homework. Gotta make a good impression at this new school after all. However, homework is quickly abandoned –

– because a bunch of teens (aka potential friends!) have begun wandering by. Serendipity is off and introducing herself to everyone she can. Yes, that’s the welcome wagon in the background.. but they’re grownups, so Serendipity is leaving them for Patience to handle. Patience is ignoring the doorbell while she plays Sims Forever…because sometimes the game imitates life too accurately.

She started getting hungry so I got ready to have her make a meal.. only to remember that their funds are zero. She left all her new friends (she managed to get two of the 10-12 teens she met all the way to friend status) and went for a gathering loop around the neighborhood. We found a snapdragon to harvest, so we brought that back to plant.
(Plant #1.)

Sold off the frog that she bred and had enough money for some salad (Recipe #1). Not a terribly exciting first meal, but I don’t want to deal with fire yet.

Day 2 rolls around, and she’s up bright and early for work. Well.. early anyway. Still kind of dim, and she’s far from chipper.

She finishes work, and school, and a quick round of harvesting neighborhood plants so that she could make fruit salad (out of lettuce and such?).. but then it bugged out and wouldn’t let her cook it. Or clean it up. Or let me hand-of-God it to the trash. I had her munch some raw produce and sent her off to bed because she was just unhappy all around needs-wise. She went and sat on her bed like she was relaxing, then got back up. Twice. Finally got her to lay and sleep.. but her energy bar continued to go down. UGH. Glitches should not be allowed on day 2 of a new save. I reset her, and she was able to successfully sleep then.. but it was so late, no way was she getting close to rested.

The next day she used one of her 3 allowed “call off school” days. It’s not like her performance could have gone up anyway. Her needs were tanked. We had some fun on the computer.

I had Serendipity plant one of each of the things we harvested yesterday. We’ve now got six different plants – snapdragon, bluebell, apple, strawberry, potato, and mushroom.

Under Aunt Patience’s watchful eye, Serendipity whips up some fruit salad. (Recipe #2.)

She works on her school project with her good friend Cassandra’s help.

Billie calls her up and asks to come over. Of course! The more the merrier! They’re already close friends, but are so cute together. I imagine she’ll be one of the “true loves”.. I’m keeping an eye on the whims for guidance on those at the moment.

Cassandra and Serendipity officially become Best Friends Forever.

Wolfgang is brought home from school the next day, as is a B report card, and while working on her homework she chats her way into friendship with him too.

Calvin then calls her up and asks to come over too. When he gets there, she rolls up a whim to get flirty.. so I take that as my sign from the gods that he is to be the first “true love”. She drops some hints, sends him her digits (Patience is looking mighty judgey in the background there), and flirts it up.

First kiss!

They become boyfriend and girlfriend and take a selfie to make it Simstagram-official. Then it’s off to bed with Serendipity (well.. food, bathroom, shower, bed). Tomorrow’s another early day.

Aunt Patience may not be much help when it comes to most things, but she sure is a master at helping herself to the meals Serendipity has stored in the fridge. Once again there’s no leftovers, so in the morning she whips up some chips & salsa. (Recipe #3.) Sounds like a good breakfast to me!

When she gets home from school, Calvin calls her up for a date. Her needs are low, but I figure we’ll make it a quick one. He takes her out to this island (I’ve never been to this lot), and they make use of a nearby bush to mess around without anyone noticing. After a quick nap, I send her around to collect what’s here (not much) and then head home.

While she was at the island with Calvin, she had gotten a call inviting her to join the Renegades club. I declined, but then went and re-read the rules and there’s nothing against clubs. Still, the Renegades isn’t a great “fit” for her, so I had her apply to the Avant Gardes. She drug her tired butt out to the coffee shop to schmooze with Yuki and close-talker Hugo here, and managed to get accepted. Then it was home to sleep and be thankful that she didn’t have to wake up before dawn for a shift finally.

Finally, Saturday. A “free” day! I was excited.. and then I remembered she needed to throw thirteen parties. Ughhhh.. I hate parties. Oh well.. figured I’d get a start on it at least. She invited over her boyfriend and her bestie of course, and then 4 other teens. She made friends with everyone, and was trying her hardest to get to a gold level party…

Bless her heart. She just didn’t have enough energy in her tank after being up most of the night too. Still, our party made it to Silver. I’m counting that as successful. We were gifted a couch for it after all. A not-very-comfy couch, but still.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning up (Manners is in range, Responsibility is over halfway there now), doing a neighborhood collection run, tending the garden, and finishing up the first painting and following it up with one more. (Paintings #1 & #2)

And of course between Aunt Patience and the guests, the fridge was empty again. Serendipity filled it up with some fish tacos before she went to bed. (Recipe #4.)

Here’s how she stands on the goals after the first week:
1. Max a part time job – Meh, not yet. Due for one promotion next shift though.
2. Have a BFF – Checkaroo! Cassandra Goth is Serendipity’s bestie.
3. Have at least 4 boyfriends/girlfriends – Currently on mate #1. (Serendipity doesn’t limit love based on gender, so she will likely end up with some of each.)
4. Be friends with 13 people at the same time – Currently at 9. Should have this one met tomorrow, if all goes to plan.
5. Earn $13,000 – Hahaha, not even close yet. Sitting at $1025 right now.
6. Collect 13 different collectibles – Working on it. We have 5 different MySims dolls, and 3 different frogs.
7. Catch 13 different fish – We only have 1 (Dont Stop Minnow) right now.
8. Write 13 books – Haven’t even begun
9. Paint 13 pictures – 2 down, 11 to go.
10. Cook 13 different recipes – 4 done.
11. Gain 13 skill points – Checkaroo! (She has 1 each in Comedy, Fishing, and Fitness; 2 each in Gardening and Logic; and 3 each in Charisma, Cooking, Painting, Programming, and Video Gaming. So 22 total.)
12. Grow and maintain 13 plants – She’s at 6 different plants right now.
13. Throw 13 successful parties – Ughhhhh.. 1/13. Still a dozen to go. *collapses on ground*

SerendipiTeen – an immortal teen challenge

For the summer, Boolprop.net has challenged folks to complete, well, a challenge. Any one of our choosing. I settled on their Immortal Teen challenge (click to read more about it), as I hadn’t done it the first time around. Basically you move in a teen (controllable) and their subpar caretaker. The teen has to juggle work, school, and social life while getting enough skill & experience to make it in the world away from their caretaker (finally!)

Let’s introduce the players in our story, shall we?

A snobby hot-head who hates children, it was clear that Patience Groves was named somewhat ironically. Her temper and disdain for starting at the bottom and working up made it pretty impossible for her to keep a job. So when her step-brother tragically passed away leaving behind an inheritance, Patience stepped in.. even if it did mean she’d have to deal with his brat.

Serendipity Pope also felt like her name might be a bit ironic. A mother who didn’t make it through childbirth, a father who passed away as well, moving in with her cold aunt. She spent most of her time outdoors to get space away from her aunt’s judginess. Aunt Patience had now decided that she was “old enough to earn her keep” (aka the inheritance had been blown through), and uprooted them to a new neighborhood. Serendipity would have to start over as the new kid in school.. and find ways to make money as well.

And speaking of the new house, here it is. Cozy, right?

Serendipity: “‘Cozy?’ That’s tiny!”

Micro, actually. I just got the Tiny Living pack, so you’ll have to deal. Besides, your Aunt blew through your money so they savings on bills will be nice. Suck it up, buttercup.

Serendipity: “If I had a simolean for every time life has sent me a ‘suck it up buttercup’ moment, we could afford a mansion.”

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And here’s a quick tour around the house. An itsy bitsy living/dining/kitchen, a cramped bathroom, an equally cramped bedroom, and an outdoor space that will help when we need room at parties.

Patience: “I call the bed by the bay window, of course.”

Of course you do. And with that all set up, I’m off to actually play. Here’s to a more worth-it chapter next time!

Roulette: A whole handful

Happy holidays, Roulette readers! As a quick reminder, who is in our household right now:
Frost – mom, young adult, white hair/eyes
Abyss – dad, young adult, black hair/eyes
Dijon – son, child, gold hair/black eyes
Topaz – daughter, child, gold hair/black eyes
Boyd – son, toddler, random blond hair/gold eyes
Diesel – son, infant, black hair

Mom and dad are both dreaming of throwing a birthday party for Dijon. Not gonna happen, guys. I hate parties.

Boyd is adorable.

Booped your nose!!

Ugh, Dijon’s growing up in the dark. At least Topaz is with him to cheer him on.

I drag him inside so you can see him better.

First day of winter fest means a new family picture!

Officially on the rock track now. Woot!

Diesel’s birthday, yay!

Nope, I take that back. Instead it’s our first fire. Lame. Fear not, the guys got it put out, and I rebought the charred counter and replaced the cake (because apparently you can’t age if your candle blowing causes a calamity.)

Diesel’s second attempt was smooth, and he appears to get 100% Abyss’ coloring.

One trip to the potty, then a major walking session.. got the walking skill done!

Dijon is outside living his best snow day life.

And bam, with potty training done, it’s two toddler skills out the way.

Abyss doesn’t leave for work for another hour or so, so we sneak in an attempt for baby #5 in the shower.

Success!

In the wee hours of the morning, Frost teaches Dijon how to drive.

Diesel is being adorable at the peg box.

Abyss is helping Boyd with the final book of this series…

…because it’s his birthday!

Sparkle on, Boyd.

Here he is eyeing his cake after blowing out the candles.

No time for eating it though. We’re going to the library. Abyss tries to play for tips, but there’s another pregnant woman there who goes into labor and the potential crowd is drawn away to freak out about that.

Frost settles in with Diesel to read to him. I’m determined he get through all the toddler books and the library means you read insanely fast.

Boyd checks out a suspicious bookshelf in the basement.

We’re wrapping up the fake Dr. Seuss book series when Frost stands up and gushes. I hope this library has flood insurance. You can see the puddle in the background that’s still there from the previous laboring woman. Anyway, old woman who is overdressed for the library freaks out…but Frost does not.

In fact, Frost continues not freaking out, not even moving a simulated muscle, as Diesel works his way through the first two books of the final toddler series. She’s obviously glitched, but I’m a little scared to reset her mid-birth, so I just leave it and see what will happen.

Eventually the game teleports her back home, jammed into the corner of the front porch to finish birthing.

And so baby #5 is born. It’s a girl named Marigold.

Boyd wants you to see his block tower.

Frost tucks in Diesel so he (and she) can get some sleep.

Also, so far I have given each of the Roulette children a teddy bear. It gives them a moodlet boost while they sleep, but mainly it’s done with the thought that the final child from this challenge (or maybe a random #15) will become the founder for Boolprop.net’s Dear Diary challenge.

And on this note, we wrap it up for the year. Happy Holidays from the Roulettes to you, readers!

Dijon: 10 point hair, 5 point eyes
Topaz: 10 point hair, 5 point eyes
Boyd: 0 point hair, 10 point eyes
Diesel: 5 point hair, 5 point eyes
Marigold: 10 point hair, ? point eyes

Roulette: Party of 6

Hey all. 🙂 As we’re starting to gather more sims, I thought I’d do like I did with my baby boom challenge and start each chapter with a reminder of who we’ve got. 🙂

Frost – mom, young adult, white hair/eyes
Abyss – dad, young adult, black hair/eyes
Dijon – son, child, gold hair/black eyes
Topaz – daughter, toddler, gold hair/black eyes
Boyd – son, infant, random blond hair

Dijon went over to a friend’s house after school. I approve, so we’ll try and build that friendship into a relationship later so that he’s not thrown to the SP wolves when he ages up and moves out. LOL

Abyss played for tips at the fairground again, and actually managed some money this time around.

And he was a doting daddy when he came home.

How meta.. a ghost telling ghost stories.

Spooky day! I let Dijon trick or treat.

While baby sleeps....mom and dad flirt. LOL They’re always flirting if I haven’t got things queued up for them. At this point they both roll wishes for another baby. I like your enthusiasm guys, but we’re waiting til Boyd ages and knows some stuff.

Aww.. best big brother ever! Dijon helps Topaz finish out the Dr. Seuss-esque series of toddler books.

Today is Boyd’s birthday! Topaz’s too, but I’ve been doing some work on the upstairs and now only have the funds for one cake.

He ages up into a cutie with gold eyes.

Here’s an un-derped pic for you, as he had to go straight to bed since he was tired.

After the day’s consignment funds roll in, Topaz gets a cake too.

Shimmer sparkle..

Ta-da! She adds Loves the Outdoors to her traits.

And an un-crosseyed picture of the birthday girl.

These two are still pretty similar face-wise.

More flirting from these two.. but good news is Boyd’s awake and happy.

Frost wastes no time teaching him to potty..

..and then focuses on teaching him to walk while Abyss is off at work. Both she and Abyss are tired when he gets home, but with two toddler skills taught, they hop into the sack for some fun before crashing.

Thankfully big sister is there for the assist when Boyd gets hungry.

Closeup on TopazCloseup on Dijon (our place is huge so everyone runs everywhere lol)Closeup on Boyd as he toddles his way to the potty.

The big kids are knocking out some block skill. Check out those castles!

Hard to tell from this angle, but Frost’s wardrobe change lets us know baby number four is incoming. She wraps up teaching Boyd to talk (though he seems dubious about asking for a bath) and then I send her out to collect flowers at the fairgrounds for hours. Winter is fast approaching and wildflowers have been our best source of income so far. She manages to find almost 7k in flowers before heading home when it starts hailing. Should be enough for me to finish up the upstairs rooms for the kids.

With Frost busy, Abyss tries to cook. That black goo is supposed to be mac and cheese. He gives up and grabs some leftover cake.

I just love toddler faces. *wub*

I had Frost resting in the rocking chair out here when she felt a gush and stood up. She figures it looks like another step towards her big ole family wish.

Frost: “Owww.. at least there’s only one more after this.”
Ha. You’re missing a zero.
Frost: “What? I’m wishing for five.”
Well, you’re having fourteen. God speed.

And with that, we welcome baby #4.. it’s a boy!

Meet Diesel. He has his daddy’s black hair, and is both Brave and a Heavy Sleeper (which means he can beat up burglars, but will sleep through their arrival anyway. LOL)

And because I finally downloaded a pose player, here’s a picture of the family so far. Awesome poses from Poses by Bee. 🙂

Dijon: 10 point hair, 5 point eyes
Topaz: 10 point hair, 5 point eyes
Boyd: 0 point hair, 10 point eyes
Diesel: 5 point hair, ? point eyes

Roulette: Well it’s not gold

Taking a peek at our little party of four on a typical morning.

Frost heads out to plant some of the most giant seeds the world has ever seen.

That night, the Spectral Ancestors take an interest in the tykes, with Hickory coming to take care of a totally unfazed Dijon, and Cerulean chatting up her daughter and the (grand)babies.

What’s this? Baby in an awkward headlock while Abyss twirls a noisemaker? That can only mean one thing.

Hallelujer, it’s Topaz’s birthday! Here’s hoping her social need no longer will decay like actually visibly while I stare at it. This infant stage has been exhausting, but she literally had to have someone holding her every sim hour or two. No joke. Is there simulated colic? Cuz she had it, if so.

At least she’s cute, even with the birthday derp still on her face. Although……she looks awfully familiar.

Frost takes her potty and then starts on teaching her to talk while her brother heads over to the toys.
Dijon: “Her has my face.”
I know, sweetie. I know.

Abyss rolled a wish to read her to sleep as soon as she aged up. I didn’t even know you could do that with toddlers, but when she got tired I had him go to put her to bed and the option was there so that’s what we did.Oh god.Topaz: “Daddy I don’t like this.”

Me neither, sweetpea. Me neither. Thankfully she rubber banded back to her proper size and shape quickly. There was no reading, but also no lasting ill effects, so.. cool, cool.

That next morning, Frost knocked out the rest of potty training with her.

Seriously. At least in toddler form, y’all look the same. Both cute, but same. Mayyybe a different nose? Tough to tell until you age.

And speaking of aging.. it’s Dijon’s birthday!I love twinklebutt toddler birthday pics.

Birthday derp face is not near as appealing on sim children. LOL

Here’s a more regular version of his face. He IS a cutie still.

And because it’s the first day of the fall festival, I have them all pile into a taxi and head for a brief trip out.

It’s the perfect way to get them all out of the way for me to expand out the house. It’s not done but I AM out of money, and the bones are there at least. Sorry for the crooked picture. I couldn’t find my mouse (and man doing this stuff with a trackpad is a pain in the ass.)

Here’s the outside, for now. It’ll get a bit more panache as we get a bit more funds.

And the important part of the festival – the family picture!

Now.. I was getting itchy to get started on baby #3, so I had Frost plug away until Topaz knew how to talk. That’s two of the three toddler skills done, and thus I am free to get going on the making of the next Roulette baby. (My own self-imposed rule so that I don’t find myself just swimming in a sea of babies and then having to wait forever while they grow up to move out so I can have the next wave.) Frost wanders off to find Abyss.

Oh my! An alien landed here!

Too bad I don’t have time to say hey. Frost found her hubby asleep in bed.. and is suggesting some alternative bed actions. *hehe*

One of our ghosts started haunting a plant and rando alien gave it a scan. Wonder what her findings were? LOL

We never did get to say hi as it took THREE MORE TRIES before I heard baby chimes. But hey, priorities. Aliens gain me nothing in this challenge.

On her way to the arboretum (to harvest life fruit for herself), Frost gets a baby pop. Woot!

Now that we have confirmation of the next sibling, we get serious about knocking out the last of Topaz’s tot skills.. Guess who’s a walker now! 😀

And guess who got promoted to band manager.

Cutie pie.. she’s  got three days left to go, and only the peg box left to do. Maybe I’ll end up buying some books.

Baby time!Roulette baby 3 is a boy! And his hair isn’t gold!

However, it’s just plain blond. Say hello to Boyd (Boyd means “blond”). I think he’s a Hydrophobic Heavy Sleeper. His random blond hair gains us NOTHING. He better have amazing eyes.

Dijon: 10 point hair, 5 point eyes
Topaz: 10 point hair, 5 point eyes
Boyd: 0 point hair, ? point eyes

Roulette: An Honest Woman

Hey all, it’s time for the next installment of the Roulettes!

Aww, Abyss is such a good daddy, doing as much caretaking of baby Dijon as he can.

Spice: “Hi sweetpea!”
Frost: “Not now daddy, you’ll break my concentration.”

The rules say no early age up. I suffered through the whole baby stage, but when I got the popup of “today is Dijon’s birthday!” I counted it as no longer early. 😛 I hate it when they age alone/in the dark. I imagine babies will be aged immediately upon seeing that popup, toddlers will be at any point during the day, and children and teens will finish that final day of school before having their cake. I won’t age them before the game declares it their birthday, but after that, I’m good with not feeling like it’s early.
Anyway.. today is Dijon’s birthday! Our tiny place does not lend itself well to cute birthday pics, so here’s a snap of daddy standing at the end of the hall to cheer his baby boy on.

Awww.. what a cutie! He gets his daddy’s eyes to pair with that gen B gold hair. 🙂

Frost immediately takes him off to the restroom to potty train him.. then terrorize him with the claw before stuffing him back on the potty. LOL

As you can see, potty training and fun CAN mix, and Dijon gets that skill soon after aging.

Then, after feeding the tot and putting him to bed, Frost and Abyss head out to the yard for some romantic time.

Abyss, eager to live up to that “Most Likely to Get Married” prediction from graduation, asks Frost to marry him. She says yes.

They have a simple and sweet wedding right there in their yard (after I quickly buy some landscaping so the backgrounds aren’t as boring.)

I give you.. Mr. & Mrs. Roulette!

Hehe.. they’re too cute. He winked at her as the sun set on their big day. She got all swoony and thoughts of bed activities filled her head. 😉

And because I take way too many pics of my simmies weddings, here’s a whole whack more! Things got a little frisky after that blown kiss..

..they headed inside, and I’m sure you can guess where this ended up. 😉

This just cracked me up. When he saw his bride in the morning, he leapt into her arms. LOL

Abyss takes tot duty for a bit so mommy can fill need bars.

Aspen, you can show up and clean our bathroom any time you want. Seriously, it’s the second time she’s done it that I’ve noticed.

Spruce: “Ew, a ghost. Don’t like that.”
Aspen: “Ew, a ghost. Don’t like that.”
Frost: “*sigh* Dijon, I expect you to be smarter than your green-haired ancestors, mmkay?”

And Abyss gets to finish up teaching Dijon to walk!

Such a big boy.

With a smushy widdle adorable face… *pinches cheeks*

Anyway, now that her baby knows 2 out of 3 toddler skills, I’m allowing Frost to set her sights on making the next one. She finds Abyss in the restroom and they.. ahem.. make a steamy shower.

Frost tucks her little one in and heads off for a day of collecting.

We hit up the park to pick flowers, we harvest fruit and veg that we find out and about, and over at Alistair’s there are tons of insects to collect. On the final ones, Frost gets a belly pop. Baby # 2 is incoming! She loves her little man so much that she immediately wishes for another boy. I lock it. She’ll get one eventually. Then I send her home as she’s about to pass out. On her way there I check and somehow Abyss knows a baby is imminent, as he is wishing for a girl. I lock that one too. Someone will be happy this time. LOL

Mommy heads straight to bed, and daddy and little man have supper together.

Seriously. Happiest. Kid. Ever.Um.. Dijon? That’s not how you play that. It’s not gonna work that way.

Oh. I, uh, I stand corrected.

Gold ghosts (Honey & Spice) out tonight!

When Frost wakes up, she finishes knocking out the “learn to talk” gig with Dijon. Now he’s free to do whatever he wants til his birthday. 🙂

Later, it’s baby time! And the only one around to help is generation A’s Hickory.

Frost let’s out a yell and Hickory immediately nopes on outta there. LOL So much for help.

It’s a girl!

Meet Topaz Roulette. She, like her brother, has gold hair. She’s artistic and hydrophobic. And while Frost doesn’t know it yet, Topaz is the most socially needy sim baby I have ever seen.

Abyss had been wishing to make $25 in tips, so he had been out at the fairgrounds playing. These ladies were the only ones there though, and they totally ignored him in favor of “skating” (aka floating above the rink.)

He packed up and headed home. My new family of four caught some zzz’s together.

I know these aren’t countable points yet but I’m keeping track here to help me out
Dijon: 10 point hair & 5 point eyes
Topaz: 10 point hair & ? point eyes

Roulette: Let’s get it started

Here’s where we left off last time: Everyone alive and forced to gather around a couch for a no-free-will family photo for me. Once I got one where everyone was (more or less) looking, I flipped free will back on.
My sims: Yay!
And then I began the force killings.
My sims: Wait, what?

I’m not a big ghost person, so I tried to give each a different cause of death that would make them show up in their color so that I could more easily keep them straight.

Then I realized our teens were still teens and were supposed to be aged before the offing of everyone else. Enh, at least generation C is still around to watch their daughter and her boyfriend age up.

And so I am happy to present Frost. It looks like she may have mom’s face and mouth shape, dad’s nose and I think eye shape. Having had approximately one sim-hour as a teen, I don’t get to choose her trait. She seems to understand the challenge though, and ages up with Flirty locked in to add to her Artistic, Bookworm, Family-Oriented, Handy self. Did I take the totally easy route and select the “Surrounded by Family” lifetime wish for her? You bet I did. I’m going to need all those points to get her a Young Again potion at some point. (While my young adult stage is a little longer than adult stage, I have it set in my game that only young adult females can get pregnant.)

And Abyss ages up nicely as well, locking in Irresistible to add to his Brooding, Hopeless Romantic, Virtuoso, Workaholic self. He rolled his Lifetime Wish immediately and it was Rock Star.

Frost sure seems to approve of his look.. ha! Or maybe she’s shocked that her dad is punching the party spinner THROUGH her arm.

Hm, nope, looks like it’s appreciation for the fine specimen.. hehe..

Abyss rolls up a wish to visit the Arboretum, and I seize the opportunity to get them off the lot so I can build.
Spice: You’re about to croak us too, aren’t you.
Yup. It’ll be painless though, I promise. And I’ll make one of them fetch y’all later.

Oh for cute! I don’t think I’ve ever actually chosen Irresistible as a trait for anyone. I’m gonna have to. These animations are adorable.

His blown kiss didn’t quite work as intended though. LOL

But since he still wanted to go IN that arboretum, I directed them there. Frost has some ideas as she heads in..
..and those ideas get expanded upon. *hehe* Who says you need things like gainful employment before jumping right in? I plan on turning my speakers off for each try so that it’s a surprise to me whether or not it was successful.

We DO have a house though!

Just gaze upon our tiny-but-functional living box! I made it while they were out taking classes that they wished for: guitar for Abyss, painting for Frost.

And Abyss is now on his way to becoming a rock god! Okay, so he’s currently just a fan, but still.

Back at home with the both of them, Frost settles in to learn some cooking so as not to burn down the house, while Abyss practices the guitar. I guess the bathroom has the best acoustics?

He serenades his wife as she hightails it in there to toss cookies. I know it’s not something she ate since neither of them has eaten anything yet.. lol.. so YAY, baby number 1 is incoming!

Oh, and just to prove that I did have Frost pick up the graves after her painting class.. here they are, currently up in the corner of the lot.

The next morning was graduation, which I forgot about. Apparently Frost thought her baby bump couldn’t possibly fit in the voluminous graduation robe.. so she opted for a skintight sweater and leggings. She was voted “Most Artistic” and he was voted “Most Likely to Get Married.” Totally not just because he knocked his girl up before graduation.

I sent them across the street to the Summer Festival and nabbed this cute picture. Currently, the plan is to take one on the first day of each festival. Honestly, if I do this challenge again, I’ll be keeping all 8 alive until graduation happens so they can celebrate together.. and then I could get a big family picture. 🙂

While at the festival, Abyss hops in on a hot dog eating contest. He wins and they get some food that they didn’t have to cook. Hooray! While doing that, his phone rings with an opportunity to listen to a seminar by a famous musician.

Frost meanwhile is picking flowers right and left. They’re everywhere (and worth a bunch, some of them!) Suddenly, she inadvertently waters the flowers.. so I send her home and make Abyss pick the rest of the flowers until it’s time for his seminar.

At home, Frost takes matters into her own hands.. literally.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Roulette baby #1: Dijon! He has the goldenish hair last found in gen C, and arrived with (I believe) Friendly and Excitable locked in. And while she was delivering their son, Abyss was attending a seminar.. which gained him another guitar skill point and got him “inspired” so he was able to skill more quickly. I like to think the birth of his child was his muse.

And because we have a bouncing baby boy now, I had Frost sell all the flowers in her pocket (which gave us a few THOUSAND.. not bad for an afternoon of picking.) We added a couple bedrooms onto the back of our now-slightly-less-tiny box and called it good. Dijon is on the floor because I was determined that someone wish for a crib before I buy him one. I WILL get those easy reward points. It took all afternoon and into the evening, but both parents did finally wish for crib purchase, so no more floor baby. LOL

That night, we had so many ghostly visitors. Aspen (shows up as lime green) was first out, and she cleaned the toilet. Come see us any time! LOL Spruce (also green, but darker) was out too, but he mainly wanted to float around through things… like the bed every time the sims laid in it, which makes for some very broken sleep. And then over breakfast we still see them coming.
Honey: “Frost! Hi, sweetie!”
Frost: “Hey, gramma Honey. Hey, great-grampa Hickory.”
These two just wanted to take leftovers out of the fridge and either leave them places or eat them. Not sure where the food goes in an ethereal being but whatever. (And yeah, Hickory is orangey, it’s the closest I could find to dark brown.)

Next time – Dijon should age up (no early aging is toughest in the baby stage ugh), and we should welcome baby #2 hopefully.