Chapter 7: A Gieke's Guide to Love

We start this update with a shot of Joanna working out at home. She was beginning to get a little chunky, which is fine, but I'm not sure if it's due to lack of exercise post babies or what. Anywho, I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't so odd/disproportionate looking. Anywho, a little exercise is never a bad thing! 

Meanwhile, Bethany got in some computer time. I think at this point she's chatting with someone to fill her social need, but I can't remember for sure.

Prior to playing the part that these pictures are from, I had taken a break to play a just for fun save on the side. Well, I hadn't quite gotten down how the whole aging/saved games thing worked (primarily due to my lack of exploration and attention to that aspect of the game) and I forgot to set my aging to playable household only. So when I came back, Joanna had already given birth to her child with Billy AND the child had already grown up (with a horrendous name - it was the most random thing ever, and I don't even remember what it was...something like Shakika or something like that. Sorry if you like the name, no offense meant...I just think it's awful), as had her most recent baby Embry :( So unfortunately, no pregnancy/labor/baby pics of Jo and Billy's baby :( Sorry Whiteraven40!! I have it all set up right now, so if I use another one of your guys in the future I won't miss the important stuff. Anywho, here are the kiddos aged up. First up is Embry. He's rather cute if I do say so myself!

And this little cutie is the result of Joanna's time with Billy Bass! I went ahead and changed her name to one of the names on my list, and she is now Holly :) And, spoiler alert, she grows up gorgeously ;)

Meanwhile, outside...again...

Breckin: A lot of people around town call my mom trash, but I still love her. They call her that cause she's always out with a different guy practically every day, and she's had 9 babies and other than a couple sets of twins, none of them have the same father. She's usually not home when we get home cause she's out with those guys, but they've all been really nice so I don't mind! Although apparently a couple of them busted up my sister's dollhouse, which wasn't very nice. Mom fixed it, though, so it's all good.

Old Lady: Oh dear...

KIDS. STAHP. STRANGER DANGER AND ALL THAT.

*Side note: He had a trash thought bubble over his head which explains the trash topic. I was super bummed to realize that the thought bubbles don't show up in screenshots :( At least they haven't for me...

What's this?! Another new neighbor?! Sure, Joanna! Just go knock on the door uninvited! I'm sure he'll love that!

Aw, who am I kidding, he loved it! This little nerdy cutie is named Chester Gieke and he is the star of Lynnwood's current running Legacy Challenge! You can (and should) read it HERE cause it's amazeballs. Promise. Eventually I'll get around to not being lazy and make a links page for my other stories as well as my favorites.

The option for them to debate game strategy came up and I lol'd at how serious and intense he got. Gaming is srs biznass.

Simultaneous squee fits afterword? Yes please. CUTE.

Chester: Are you tired? Do you need to go home? I mean, it's only 2:00 in the afternoon, I can't imagine you'd be that tired just yet. I mean, maybe with all those kids you have running around, but -

Joanna: *Fake yawn*

Chester: Wait...w-what are you...whoa, you almost hit me in the face there. Please be careful, I just got these glasses and I don't need them broken...

Joanna: *Fake stretch*

Joanna: I think you know exactly what I'm after here, Chester. *Eyebrow wiggle*

Chester: ...I think I need an adult...

Just kidding. He loves it. And...AUTONOMOUS MERCILESS TICKLING!!! I died. So. Freaking. Cute.

Followed by some autonomous staring into each others eyes. Guys. Staaahhhhp. Pweeze. She doesn't need anymore competition for her endgame love.

Aaaaand then some autonomous snuggling. Damnit.

Ok, enough of that. Time to get the ball rolling. First kiss time!

It was at this time that my dopey brain remembered that I already have 8 Sims in my household soooo Gieke bbs will have to wait. I sent Joanna home and shortly after the kids came home from school. Ciel and Embry decided to monkey around...teen/child monkeying around definitely doesn't look very safe...watch his head, Ciel... O.o

At this point, the game started getting super weird on me. Holly supposedly came home from school, but she was grayed out and I couldn't do anything with her. Clicking on her only gave the options for her to care for herself, travel or something else I can't remember. But hovering over her, she said she was at home. Also, the clean up action was borked and nobody could clean anything. This happens in another save of mine too so it's possible this is just a glitch from time to time. I evicted the household, deleted the save and started a new one and all seemed to be ok. 

Ciel won the most helpful child award that night. Not only did she clean up whatever was left of the breakfast dishes, she also made a garden salad for dinner!

Apparently the place to be for dinner tonight was the living room! This is a first...usually they eat in the dining room unless there's no room. Then they'll stand around the kitchen counter, or MAYBE one or two of them will go to the living room. This was strange to me.

After dinner, Holly relieved Ciel of some of the cleaning duties and picked up after dinner.

To pass the time until the eldest kids aged up, Joanna worked on starting a garden and upgraded a couple of the sinks in the house because they were all breaking quite often.

She also made time to call and chat with Chester. Gotta keep that relationship up high, after all, so that when she has room in the house they can just get down to business.

After a couple of days, the garden was coming along nicely!

Finally, birthday day arrived! I had previously been waiting a week between age ups per child, but it was getting a little hard to keep track of. So from now on, every Friday after school is birthday day, as long as the kid has been at their current age for 3 days or more. So, for example, if Joanna gave birth to Holly on a Thursday, I wouldn't age her up the next day. I give them at least 3 days at each life stage. Or if Embry aged up to child on a Wednesday, I wouldn't age him up to teen 2 days later, I'd wait until the following Friday. So sometimes they'll be that age for a week, sometimes a little over, sometimes a little under. As long as they get 3 days in each life stage, I'm fine with it. I would go longer, but, to be honest, there's no way I'm going to accomplish all of their aspirations nor am I that invested in them in this particular save. As I mentioned at the beginning, this save is purely experimental. And for experimental/time purposes, it's just easier at the time to do a bunch of birthdays at once to create the opportunity to move out several kids at a time as opposed to one here, one there. Anywho, I know none of you really care about that aspect, I was mainly explaining for the few of you who may/may not be paying attention and/or finding it an odd coincidence that ALL of my kids age up on the same day. MOVING ON. Joanna got busy making a cake for the day's festivities! First up was Ciel transitioning into YA stage! Every time they pull out those big green noisemaker things, I can't help but think of Dr. Seuss....it seems like a very Whoville type of instrument :P

Next up is twin sister Bethany! She takes a moment to ponder what she wishes for! P.S. Breckin's singing face...I lol'd!!

Next up to bat was Joanna's adopted son Bruce, making his sparkly tornado transition to YA as well!

Stephanie's turn was next, follwed by twin brother Breckin. Both, obviously, aged up to teenagers.

HAHAHA that hat! That would be Stephanie under that monster. Anywho, up next was Embry moving up to teenhood, followed by Holly.

Stephanie turned out pretty cute minus her ginormous schnoz!

Breckin stayed bean pole skinny as he was during childhood. He's still a cutie, though, and still a carbon copy of his daddy.

Embry aged into quite the hunk. He's got some really squinty eyes, though...several of her kiddos have had that, and I'm not sure why cause, from what I recall, none of the guys she's been with had eyes that small. But it could be a simple mixing of genes causing it, who knows. Oh well, he's still a handsome young man!

And finally, teenage Holly! Truthfully, this picture doesn't even halfway do her any justice. She's quite possibly one of the prettiest in game Sims I've ever seen. I don't take pictures of the kids when they reach YA simply because they look exactly the same as teens.

Morning came and it was time to send our new adult children out into the world. A goodbye hug from mom, and Ciel, Bethany and Bruce were all on their own.

I quickly had Joanna take care of some needs, and the bills, before giving Chester a call.

Naturally, he came right over, and a celebratory giggle fit was had. Seriously. Too. Precious.

See? Right down to business.

Preggo test time...

...that apparently needed an audience. Wth is with these guys coming in during this shiz? Her first however many pregnancies, this NEVER happened. Now the last two, these guys gotta be all up in her test taking business. Calm down, dudes.

Proud face is proud! Joanna is preggers! Idk what exactly you're so proud of, Jo, cause it took Chester's help just as much as yours. But whatever floats your boat of conceitedness.

Time to tell dad the news! SHE'S SO EXCITED!! That's my favorite way they tell them...soo cute. He, on the other hand, is....I'm not sure. I've seen some Sims react that way, and they're really happy in the end, others not so much. Idk. Meh, she got her use out of him, I guess.

Before sending him home that evening, they took their obligatory photo together, tormenting me even further that I can't have a wall of mommy/daddy selfies. Le sigh.

Alrighty, folks, that's where we leave you this fine evening! Tune in next time to see the fruits of Joanna and Chester's labor (pleeeeeaaaassseee be a red head!!) and catch up on the Tredway shenanigans! Until then, happy simming!