Mama has been very successful at her new career. I guess she found her true calling.

Branden’s also doing very well for himself these days. Happy fiancée, couple of kids. Successful medical practice.

So many delusions.

She didn’t take it too well.

I think William is better with his kids where they’re toddlers.

Well, he has one more toddler to go.

At least the cats are cute.

That evening started like any other, but it ended with an awful surprise.

It was Mama’s time to go.

She pled with the Grim Reaper for more time. She was only 109. He wasn’t sympathetic at all.

While we were all wailing with grief, Bungle let Grim inside to have a cup of coffee.

I took my grief out on Grim directly. How dare he take my mother away.

After a good pillow-bashing, I felt better.

We laid Mama to rest next to Mum.

It was rough for a time after that.

Only Imogen was oblivious.

When I got up in the middle of the night to have a good cry about Mama, I’d finally had enough.

So I zapped myself.

No more grief. Much better.

That night, it snowed.

William took up sculpting! Amazing!

I had a sudden witchly desired…

To break the toilet.

Fortunately, Helen dealt with the mess.

Then Nova started yowling in the side yard. We ran out to look.

Kittens! Two of them!

Meet Mickey

And Minnie!

Cheshire approves.

The clues in the snow led me to a house outside of town.

This woman totally looked like she could have stolen some fancy shoes.

I asked her if I could, you know, check around inside.

While I was gone, William was an embarrasingly good father.

That should have made me feel a LITTLE bit guilty. But it didn’t because I found the shoes.

When all my leads dried up, I headed to the fitness spa on a hunch. It was totally a hunch and not because I wanted to go to the spa.

And what do you know!

This was the absolutely best kind of bribe.

I found out why he wanted it kept a secret later. The shoes smelled horrible.

But what do I care? I got paid.

I’m sure Mum would approve.

———-

Aww. Goodbye, Hetal. May you have fun flirting with Allison as a ghost.

Both Hetal and Allison lived to be about 110. That’s crazy long for a life span set to 92 days. After this, I changed the NRaas settings to put a maximum on the number of days I sim could live.

I LOOOVE Mickey and Minnie. The only problem is that their markings are exactly the same, and Minnie has the default all-skinny-slider body type. I’m considering using Play with Genetics to re-roll her. Pets seem to have a large number of genetic fails. But considering that we only got one set of markings, isn’t it perfect?? I think there’s a bit of all the generations so far.

This almost catches me up to gameplay. I’m not sure if there’s another post worth of pictures. I believe I stopped playing right before, or right on top of, Franklin’s birthday.

My big question is this — if anyone is reading. Erin and William both have a wish locked in for another kid. I fear Gideon and Helen might be clones. So what do you think? Should I do it??

This is Deanne’s love life:

I never spent much time with Randolph. Christof didn’t even invite me to his wedding, the jerk.

He hit it off immediately. In five minutes, we were great friends.

His kid was a little bit creepy, though.

But she got better.

She spent most of the “playdate” playing on our video game console. She didn’t talk to my kids much.

William didn’t seem to approve of my newfound connection to Randolph.

This is the, “Come on to my wife, and I’ll suck you dry,” vampire face.

“What?” I asked when Randolph went upstairs to check on his daughter. “We were talking about the weather.”

“Nothing,” William said. He just glared.

Mama was channeling William’s jealousy. When Randolph arrived upstairs, she kicked his ass for basically no reason.

This was not my family’s finest hour.

I sent my niece and Randolph home before he could be even more abused.

I never did catch my niece’s name.

Then I took William out back to cool him down.

Then I spent some time with Bungle

While William scared the crap out of Gideon.

I guess everything was back to normal now.

Judging from the sounds coming out of the pet house, Nova and Mikhail had a similar idea.

A sexy husband who is romantic, jealous stalker. Four beautiful children.

It seems like I’m forgetting something.

Oh well.

The next morning was an important day.

It was Helen’s birthday!

We headed to the park for a huge party.

Everyone gathered around to watch Helen blow out her candles.

Except William, who went home to play with the cat. Oh, well.

Here’s my little girl!

Everyone had a pretty good time.

Here’s Caitlin’s bastard husband, Peanut, ignoring everyone to play on his laptop.

My brothers and sister getting reacquainted.

This is Rosie Wonderland, Deanne’s daughter. She grew up pretty good looking, I think.

Then we had a werewolf gang fight in the middle of the party.

I thought that was a good time to go home.

———-

Fights: 2 + 1 = 3

I fear Helen may be another face clone of Erin, but I’m really pretty lousy at picking that up. She has Erin’s nose at least. Let’s see what the kids look like as teens.

No fails have happened in a long time. I feel like I should make something harder….

I had a decent time at that party after all.

I even looked over some of the hot men and wondered what it would be like if I dumped William. It was all in good fun. I would never dump William. I might dump him on the floor, but I’d never divorce him.

The same dude showed up and asked me what my husband would think of my behavior.

He really doesn’t learn, does he?

The kids were very well-behaved while I was gone. Gideon did his homework!

He was way more proud of himself about it than I was.

Franklin read after dinner.

Then he went to bed on time.

Imogen played with her toys.

Then Mama put both of the girls to bed.

I don’t know what Helen was doing because nobody was paying attention to her. Poor kid.

To play one-on-one basketball with a neighbor.

Cheshire put the fear of the gods into him, though.

She got poor Helen out of bed just to steal candy from her.

Then she put her right back to bed to cry it out.

That’s about the time I came home from the party.

“Ha ha!” Mama shouted. “I cast a curse on you! You will fall in love with the first man you see!”

What!

Oh right. There’s only one man in this house.

Mmmmm.

He’s even sexier when he tries to be all scary and stuff.

So I took him back to our room and had my way with him.

Having a husband who doesn’t sleep keeps you creative.

The next morning, I got a call from Caitlin’s husband Peanut. He wanted to hire me for some good detectivin’.

What.

He wanted me to be a go between for a booty call with some guy in town?

This sort of thing just burns me up. I can’t hide it. Did Caitlin know what her husband was doing? I went right into the house to ask her.

What.

“It’s all right,” Caitlin said with a cheerful smile. “I don’t care who he woohoos. He’s my nemesis. I’m plotting his destruction.”

Sometimes the art of being a detective is knowing when to stop asking questions.

I got out of there as fast as possible. A stakeout is what I needed. Yeah, that’s it. A stakeout far away from Caitlin’s house. Maybe the art museum.

From my completely invisible vantage point, I watched a scary werewolf.

In a secret rendezvous

With her stockbroker to discuss investment opportunities.

After that, the werewolf sent a few quick buy and sell orders via her phone.

“I can see you,” she said without looking up. “That hiding place is pretty stupid.”

I guess the jig was up.

“I’m just trying to find out if Lief Helgason has a thing for my sister’s husband,” I admitted.

“Oh, Lief? He likes anyone with legs. I’m sure he wants to date that guy.”

The werewolf turned out to be a pretty nice lady. And very helpful!

I headed back to report to Peanut and close this case up as fast as possible.

“I knew it!” Peanut exclaimed. Then he leaned close and whispered in my ear. “What are you doing later, beautiful?”

“Going home,” I said firmly. “To forget this entire incident ever happened.”

At least I got a promotion.

———-

Stakeouts seldom work quite right in my game. It’s probably another one of these random Ambitions bugs that were never fixed. I often don’t get the popup that gives me information about the case, but usually it does fulfill the requirement for the case, so I’m not complaining.

Caitlin and Peanut Ivy have been nemeses for a long time, but they never move out or break up. They seem to enjoy hating each other.

Living on an apartment lot does get to be fun, provided there is enough stuff to do in the common areas. Someone is always challenging William to one-on-one basketball. Hmmm…. maybe I’ll add a pool.

After the dragon attack, we gathered up our things, our kids, and our random body parts and moved to a new place.

It was a townhouse in a row of townhomes. The red one.

I knew moving was the right thing. We all felt much better when we got there.

William immediately found the video game system.

Nova found the best source of drinking water.

Those block tables, though. They make me so mad!

I was in no mood to put up with his crap. “You’ll wish you had no brain when I cut your head in half!”

After that we got all hot and bothered.

And made wild woohoo in our new bed.

Much better.

While we were otherwise distracted, the kids found other things to do.

When I came downstairs, I had to fish Helen out of the toy box.

He’s crazy about his little girls.

I don’t let on that I know he’s a softie.

Aren’t they adorable?

It just made me want to do the same thing.

The only one in the house who was lonely was Nova. When we moved to the new place, my brothers and sisters wanted to take the other cats home with them. So Nova was all-of-a-sudden an only cat.

They immediately hit it off.

In the middle of all this suffocating cuteness, I got a party invitation. I can’t say that the location of the party was all that inviting.

I met a cute little old fairy. Who hit on me.

I figured a little bit of flirting was just revenge for William’s conduct at our last party.

“Aren’t you married?” some guy asked me.

So I blasted him.

Much easier than answering awkward questions.

Life settled into a routine for a little while. The girls played together.

The boys played together.

Mama flipped out at doing all the parenting work

and took her aggression out on the local lawn gnome.

OK, I guess everyone needed a break. Fortunately, that break came when a former client whose name I don’t remember invited us to a costume party for Spooky Day.

I got William and the boys together.

“It’s raining outside,” Gideon pointed out.

“What’s the problem?” I asked. “There’s no sun. It’ll be great for the vampires!”

Mama, ahem, stayed home with the girls. She wanted to, I swear.

The address turned out to be a bleak gray townhome on a bleak gray street. Nobody answered the door. It was hailing.

“This is going to be fun!” I said. I hoped they believed me.

Other guests arrived to wait in the rain for our hostess to notice we were there.

William thought this was a good time to change into his costume.

And Gideon and Franklin.

I picked something suitable for the occasion.

“It’s cold and nasty out here!” Gideon grumbled.

“Yeah, this sucks!” Franklin added.

“Well, you’re going to stay and have a good time!” I shouted. “We’re going to relax or you’re grounded!”

Some of the guests didn’t seem to mind the rain at all.

“Look, they don’t mind the cold,” I told Gideon. “Follow their example!”

“At my age, you do not want me following their example,” Gideon said.

At this point, our hostess noticed remembered to open the door. It was pretty clear why she was distracted.

William immediately got to the important stuff.

Franklin was getting pretty tired already, though, so he asked his dad for a bedtime story.

William followed him up to our hostesses bedroom, then booed him for being a sissy and left. That’s my love. He learned parenting at the School of Dudebro.

Another guest stepped in to fill the void.

So Franklin slept all night in the bed of some woman we barely know.

Meanwhile, William stormed downstairs in a rage. “You brainless idiot!” he shouted to some lady. “I’ve never seen you before in my life, but I know a bimbo when I see one.”

“But, you know, I find idiocy strangely hot.”

The lady was pretty put out by the mixed signals. That was understandable.

What was less understandable is why he came on some bimbo while I was watching from the next room.

I left the kids to fend for themselves to get the walking libido out of harm’s way.

Someone is definitely going to be dead on the couch tonight.

———-

Again no fails! Woot!

So we brought lovely little Imogen home from the hospital.

I’m not sure the other kids knew we were gone.

I got back to work.

Then, before I knew it, it was Gideon and Imogen’s birthdays!

Two birthdays together seemed like a good reason for a party, so I booked the bowling alley next door.

I guess we made quite a stinky racket. Christof showed up, took one look, and then turned around and ran.

Way to love your sister, bro.

I hurried to get Gideon to the cake because everyone was hungry.

We were pretty loud with Gideon, Helen, and Imogen all squalling at once. I think even sweet Branden was driven to drink.

Here’s Gideon!

And Imogen!

And Helen, who was mad that her siblings were getting all the attention.

And then the bowling alley kicked us out for driving out the other customers, so we headed home. The nerve of some people.

Hmm… Mama was reading to Gideon.

And Franklin was wasting time playing video games. Like son —

Like father.

And I put Helen in her playpen.

Do you get the feeling we’re missing something?

Oh!

Ok, now I have all the kids I started with.

I got home to William complaining that my bed didn’t match his tomb.

Excuse me? Someone may end up being dead on the couch tonight.

And Mama was putting Franklin to bed TOO.

Sometimes she really is super-grandma.

We left the girls to get acquainted with each other.

While I went out to buy a new car!

I love my broom, but it’s really that time in your life when you want a minivan.

———-

No fails! And with that mess of a party, that’s kind of a miracle.

Imogen has kind of an unfortunate face for a toddler, but I have a lot of hope pinned on her growing into it. I think she has William’s mouth and cheekbones, and I’m pretty sure that’s the indomitable Anjali nose.

Gideon looks like he might really be an Erin clone. Humpf. We’ll see how he grows up.

I am nothing if not consistent. 19 posts for April, 1 for May. It’s see if I can get June off well.