Summer 2000- Saenz

Elsa is 42, Georgina is 15.

Narrated by Elsa.

Georgina is still seeing Gary Mason. I'm not sure if I like it. He's at university with Declan so he's far too old for Georgina in my opinion. They've been together for a while but I expected them to break it off when Gary left for university.

I also had no idea they were doing anything other than cuddling. Georgina told me over dinner one night the thing a mother never wants to hear from her 15-year-old daughter. She's pregnant. And i'm furious.

We talked things through and Georgina decided she wanted to keep the baby. It's her baby and her decision so I said I would support her. Gary hasn't visited since he found out about the baby but he has atleast been sending money to Georgina for their child. Georgina has been putting it in her bank account and she's going to open an account for the baby when he/she arrives and transfer it all over.

I guess my mind was elsewhere when I was cooking dinner since it ended in the fire brigade being called out...

These things always happen in threes. The car was stolen.

I've been trying to occupy myself with sports. Maybe it'll help boost my fitness for whenever Gary shows his face. I hope he can run fast...

Pregnancy is taking its toll on Georgina. She's really tired, she'll come home from school, go to bed, get up, do homework and then back to bed.

Notes: Right, so, Georgina's fun and social needs needed a boost and I decided it would be a good idea to get Gary round. Should be interesting to see how her and Gary handle being parents at such a young age though.

Summer 2000- Mason

Jonny is 42 and Louisa is 15. Narrated by Louisa.

Now that Allie has her own place and Gary has left for university, it's just me and dad at home.

As much as I miss my brother and sister, it's kind of nice when it's just me and dad. He has more time for me instead of having to split his attention 3 ways.

There is still the dogs though. Fudge and Luna still aren't house trained yet. Dad said Sooty and Jess were easy to train but these two are a nightmare.

Allie visits all the time. Dad tried to give her Luna but she just hugged him and made some excuse about lack of money before leaving.

Now that i'm nearly 16 I have exams coming up so a lot of my time is taken up with school work. I still do ballet but not as often as I would like. I can't wait to get finished with school and through uni. I haven't yet decided if I want to be a dancer or maybe something to do with cooking.

Dad came home from work the other day to find more puddles on the floor. I'm suddenly expected to somehow study and house train a couple of hopeless puppies. No chance.

I ended up sneaking out to see my boyfriend, Sean. He convinced me that my dad was probably just stressed with work and took it out on me.

I tried to cook him a nice dinner to say sorry after our argument but it didn't turn out as great as I had hoped. Maybe I should cross a career in culinary off my list...

Dad understood what I was trying to do anyway. He just hugged me, said thank you and then fixed us up some spaghetti. I tried to approach the subject of getting another pet. Maybe another dog or even a cat might help with Fudge and Luna's training. His face said it all...

I think Dad misses Allie and Gary. He phones them both most days. And I thought I was on the phone a lot...

Fudge and Luna seemed to grow into adult dogs over night. Atleast they finally have the hang of peeing outside!

Notes: I've only played this family with the new calender system so far but I officially love it! Aging will be a lot slower but i'd rather that than my sims having 3 year pregnancies like in my old calender system. This is so much more realistic. The Saenz family is up next, they're also in summer 2000 and then it's onto uni for autumn. I'll update sim profiles as I play each family.

A New Calender System!

I've spent the last 2 days figuring out a new aging and calender system to make the whole hood more realistic. I think i've finally cracked it. It's heavily based on Sullivan's calender and aging system, tweaked to suit my game. The reason this took me 2 days to figure out is because I suck with numbers. Big time.

Each round will represent 2 years. So at the end of each round I will age all sims by 2 years.

I won't be playing each family for a set number of days now, i'm sticking to seasons. Each family will be given a season in the calender. Round 6 currently looks like this:

Summer 2000- Mason, Saenz
Autumn 2000- Uni
Winter 2000- Henshaw
Spring 2000- Brockman
Summer 2001- Walker
Autumn 2001- Uni
Winter 2001- Mason 2
Spring 2001- Brockman 2

Pregnancies will last 3 seasons to represent 9 months. If a sim gets pregnant in summer 2000, they'll be in the second trimester autumn 2000, third trimester winter 2000 and will give birth spring 2000.

I think that's about it. I've already played the Mason house, with aging turned off and I just took a day off each of the dogs at 6pm since pets age faster than their owners (I may change this too if it doesn't work out. I was looking at Fudge and Luna and thinking how weird it was for them to stay tiny puppies for 2 years so decided to age pets as normal.) and it seems to have worked out okay so i'll get that update posted tomorrow!

Round 5- Brockman 2

Narrated by Ramona Brockman.

The big news for me is my new little roommate! Mum was struggling to deal with a house full of cats so I agreed to take Saoirse. She's an adorable little kitten, I would have hated for her to go to some random person who probably wouldn't have even looked after her.

I don't know what all the fuss is about when it comes to taking care of another living thing. I could totally go one step further and have a baby, it's easy!

Saoirse grew fast and she has the most unique markings ever! She's a great mix of Simba and Nahla. Saoirse and working as a substitute teacher kind of makes me want to be a mum one day. I think for now i'll stick to being a cat lady!

Outtake:
There's some weird floaty-butterfly catching going on in Allie's back yard...

Notes: The.most.boring.round.ever. Hence why this update is centered around the cat. Ramona will so totally get out and socialize more next round whether she likes it or not! Caught up with blog posts, i'm now about to play the uni round and then its on to round 6!

Round 5- Mason 2

Narrated by Allie Mason.

I am so glad to finally be out of college and living on my own. Dad said I would be welcome home but I really wanted to stand on my own two feet and have my own place. There's plenty of room in my house for me to practice my magic and i'm right next door to my best friend, Ramona.

It's great being right next door to Ramona. We're both single, so apart from when we're both at work, we can hang out whenever we like without men getting in the way. I can't speak for Ramona, but i'm not looking to settle down with anybody at the moment, i've got bigger fish to fry.

I got a job but it's a little shady so don't tell dad. He's always been so squeaky clean, especially after we were burgled. It was that night that brought this kind of career to my attention. It's exciting, thrilling and I love the adrenaline rush that comes with this job.

Well, loved. I made a wrong decision and got fired. I'm keeping my eyes open for a similar job, planning birthday parties for little kids just doesn't cut it for me.

Notes: Allie spent her time this round either at her cauldron and spell book, with Ramona or at work. The idea with her getting a job in the criminal career track is purely to try and fulfill her lifetime want. I do however like the way her family was the first to be burgled in Autumn Shore and her dad is still furious over it so it works out well. I doubt he would be happy if he knew what Allie was up to!

Round 5- Walker

Narrated by Max Walker.

Selling up the old business lot and moving to a new one was the best move I could have made! I still owe a lot of money but things seem to be finally looking up.

It seems to be a never ending list of chores to be done on the farm so when i'm not at the store, i'm tackling the mountain of work at home.

Joanne and Tina help out as much as they can and i'm thankful for their help but I also want them to concentrate on their school work. There will always be work for them at the store but I know for Tina in particular, it's not what she wants to do with her life.

Apart from not working at the store, Tina doesn't really know what she wants to do. At the moment, she's more concerned with the acne outbreak she's in the middle of! Joanne is off to college to study mathematics. Tina still has time.

Notes: I've only just realised there is no mention of the triplets here at all. They may end up spending some time with their dad next round! Joanne joins Gary and Declan in college so that should be interesting!

Round 5- Brockman

Narrated by Donna Brockman.

There are times when absolutely nothing goes right. Now is one of those times. Simba seems to feel my pain...

I've always enjoyed cooking. Growing up I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life. After moving to Autumn Shore and starting a job in culinary, it seemed like the perfect job.

Apparently not, since I got fired.

Simba and Nahla had two kittens- Sheba and Saoirse. They're a handful to say the least!

I guess it was a good idea at the time but now the house just smells like... well, cats. They're all adorable but four cats in a house is too many.

Ramona still visits everyday and agreed to take Saoirse. Three cats is a lot more manageable than four!

Max Walker is another frequent visitor. We're both single but I think we're too close to go any further than that. It's nice to have someone other than my children to lean on.

Notes: Short and sweet. Donna had a crappy round, everything just went downhill for her. Sean just had a boring round, trying to keep up with homework and attempting to deal with my harder grades hack. None of the kids in the neighbourhood have an A+ grade anymore. I think I like it that way- my hood isn't full of swats who hardly tried now! The next few updates will be quite short too, then it's off to uni for Gary, Declan and Joanne.

Round 5- Henshaw

Narrated by Marie .

Okay, so, my children, lovely and everything but why do they insist on tormenting each other? It always ends in tears. Always.

I have to admit, Josh is the quietest out of the three of them. I think he takes after his Uncle Christopher.

I decided it was time they knew their father. Max has two older daughters but I was still surprised at how good he was with the triplets. Despite drowning in debt whilst he tries to get his business up and running properly he still sends money for the kids each week.

Xavier was quick to join his cousins at school, thankfully! Things are so much easier with only one infant in the house!

Speaking of Lauren, she barely made it to toddlerhood before my dad passed away. It's times like these that i'm glad we have a house full of kids. They give you a reason to get up in the morning.

We're lucky that the older ones can entertain themselves for a while, leaving Elise and I to look after Lauren.

Outtake:

Michael left a bit of money to each of his relatives. I think we can safely say Xavier was his favourite!

Notes: It's taken me ages to get this posted, things have been hectic here. I've still got 4 updates to post over the next day or so and then i'll be caught up with gameplay!