Immortal Cottoneyes -- Playing on Long (Feb 28)

[Auranaris]

Oops sorry. I meant Cottoneye. 

[MarianT]

FOUNDER'S STRUGGLES 4

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Warning: Anyone who doesn't like romance should probably skip the rest of this chapter.

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Mercy and I are both working on the Soulmate aspiration. For one of our dates, we went to the Hunter Cottoneye Memorial, etc. She started tickling me, and told me that she had become a teen again. This was all rather too much for Moira Fyres (I don't know why she had to come and sit next to us)...

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...so she left.

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When we went home, I made my big move.

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I segued right into the proposal (note the pale pink heart rising from the ring).

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Mercy took a minute to admire the ring.

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And then she leapt into my arms.

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If I could save time in a bottle
the first thing that I'd like to do
is to save every day
till eternity passes away
just to spend them with you.

But there never seems to be enough time
to do the things you want to do
once you find them.
I've looked around enough to know
that you're the one I want to go
through time with...
Thanks, Jim Croce.

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Our only guests were my grandparents, Brant Hecking, and of course, Pepita.

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Mercy and I shared a piece of cake.

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Let the honeymoon begin! Of course I took her to Windenburg.

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I started a really beautiful portrait of Mercy, but when we went into the Cafe to escape the rain, the painting disappeared. That's okay, I guess. I still have the original.

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Since both of us are bookworms, we had to visit Quad Manor, Windenburg's library.

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We played chess in the garden I'd seen. I told Mercy that the topiary pieces were moving in response to our moves. She was creeped out by that idea, so we went back to our lodging.

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She sat down to lunch with some fizzy drink. I asked her what it was. "Insta-lean," she said. "Do you think I should take it?" Word of advice to all you single guys out there: the correct answer is neither yes nor no. I told her that she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen and always would be, but she should do whatever made her happy.

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I think that was the right thing to say.

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Later we went to the haunted house with the big maze. It was raining again so we decided not to go find the wedding arch and renew our vows.

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That night we got a call from Gram. Granda had finished all his classes and would graduate the next day. Would we be home in time for graduation?

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We just made it, but it didn't matter. He went off to graduation by himself, and when we tried to join him, we ended up on the other side of campus. Granda now has a degree in Villainy.

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Mercy and I had something else to celebrate.

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Yes, the first heir in the dynasty is on the way.

[Auranaris]

Yay! Nooboo!
 I will admit, I am still a bit embarrassed for typing Cottontail. It sounded right in my head...

[MarianT]

Yay! Nooboo!
 I will admit, I am still a bit embarrassed for typing Cottontail. It sounded right in my head...

Don't worry about it.  And I now have a name for the museum -- Cottoneye Memorial Museum. It was the only thing that could fit.

[MarianT]

FOUNDER'S STRUGGLES 5

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Here is yours truly waking up from a startling dream.

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Was it about Mercy reaching the top of her pet training skills? No.

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Was it about my going to college? No. Incidentally, I'll be majoring in Art History and plan to become an Art Critic when I graduate. That way, all of our heirs can have berets if they want them.

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Was it about the sudden influx of dust bunnies? No.

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You probably guessed it. Mercy and I now have a daughter, Paisley.

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After I got dressed, I sat down and took a few calming breaths. Given that Granda doesn't see any need to add to his close-knit circle of friends, I figured it would be a while before toddlerhood was upon us.

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I figured wrong.

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Freedom Day dawned, and both Mercy and I decided to celebrate -- as did several of our neighbors.

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And Paisley became a toddler. To celebrate the holiday, she picked up the Independent trait.

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Isn't she adorable? Here are a couple more pictures:

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[Auranaris]

aww, Paisley is so cute! I like her little green theme she has going on, and her super cute little pigtails.

[MarianT]

FOUNDER'S STRUGGLES 6

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It's time for another update, and this time I have a lot to write about.

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My wife, who looks beautiful as always in her gardening apron, is off at work, and Paisley --

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Perhaps I should backtrack and tell you that Paisley has transcended toddlerhood.

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Here's a last picture of her being an adorable toddler while Mercy reads to her.

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And here she is, today, as an adorable Scout going off to her meeting (where she sold oodles of cookies with her smile). Her birthday was the happy event of the week.

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But Granda and Gram died within a few days of each other.

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We all grieved, even the dog.

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I took my girls (women?) out to dinner at the Villa Bovine, but they were still too sad to enjoy it much. Paisley didn't even finish her coloring of the placemat.

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I'll always remember Granda's complaints about the current political situation.

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And Gram's delight when we got out the ice cream maker. We had to put it away again because Mercy and Paisley were packing on pounds.

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We put their pictures up in the Cottoneye Memorial Museum. Mercy is calling the place the Elderberry Nook, and their headstones are just outside. For some reason the Museum won't let you put urns inside.

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While we were there, I hung my two portraits of Mercy and Paisley. I've told Paisley she'll have to turn around when I paint her child portrait.

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Mercy's been having all kinds of problems with her garden ever since summer started. One day her plants will all be lush.

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The next day, they've returned to the soil. They're inside the greenhouse, so they should be pretty stable. It's frustrating for her, especially because she needs to get an orchid to plant before she can get a death flower. We've tried a fix that seems to be working -- at least until the next change of seasons.

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She did manage to get the cowplant to reach its full maturity, but then she pulled it up. "I'd feel terrible if that plant actually killed someone," she told me. "What if one of Paisley's boyfriends went for the cake?" I didn't think I would mind that much, but Mercy's the boss, especially when it comes to the garden. Just joking, Mercy's the boss when it comes to everything.

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But I wish she'd gotten rid of the bee box, too. I was trying to help them, applying mite treatment, and they still came after me.

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With the plants acting weird, Mercy hasn't been able to harvest much, but the dust bunnies seem to have been helping. Paisley has been helping too, vacuuming the space that will one day be the museum on our lot. Mercy has decided that she and her heirs will fill it with collections of objects they have made, rather than found. She plans to do photographs once she reaches the top of the skill.

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Paisley's been vacuuming other things, too, like the solar collectors. She enjoys cleaning, which is a big help.

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And we've discovered that if you don't clean enough, dust fires can happen. Luckily, they seem to come with their own sprinklers.

[butterfly]

Ugh, this family isn't having the best time lately, and then the dust bunnies have to make everything worse. I'm hoping for some better times ahead.

[MarianT]

There will be better times, although the garden is still a problem.

[Rhoxi]

Paisley is just the cutest! What a sweet family you've got going.

[MarianT]

FOUNDER'S STRUGGLES 7

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It's the 25th of Summer, and our time in limbo is over. Mercy is very hopeful that the patch has fixed her gardening bug. "I thought you sprayed for bugs," I said. "It was a different kind of bug," she answered.

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With the garden working again, we decided to take some time on Sunday and go to the park for a concert. I don't like crowds, but I definitely enjoyed watching Mercy watch the singer. Paisley came with us, but she soon trotted off to pick up a cupcake from the refreshment stand.

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Mercy got a t-shirt for herself to commemorate the occasion.

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Afterwards the singer, Joy Oladokun, made a little bow.

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She also posed for pictures.

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The next day was Leisure Day. I still had to take an exam, but after that, we went to the park to play on the water slide. Paisley did quite well, but Mercy wouldn't let me take her picture.

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She got me, though. Happily, it was not the one where I fell on my face.

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But that shot and this one made me realize that I need to work out more. Luckily, I like fitness as an activity.

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Before we went home, Paisley tried to catch some frogs. She didn't succeed, but the effort enabled her to get a badge for scouts.

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That evening she and Mercy watched the sports channel for a while. I got my grades -- 2 A+s and an A-. I enrolled in what I hope will be my last term. Since I've already maxed painting, I decided to take an elective -- wellness.

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Both my girls are working hard. Paisley is an A student and is making friends at school. Here she is with Pierce Delgato, her first victim at the chess table.

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Mercy has a much wider selection of flowers now that the greenhouse is cooperating.

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She turns out one gorgeous arrangement after another, and is at level 8 at her job now.

[reggikko]

I hope the plants are fixed for you. It's still broken for me, even in a new save. So frustrating! It seemed fine at first, then the plants reverted to dirt piles after a couple of days. I'm trying to maintain some patience in order to complete the perfect plants project.

[MarianT]

@reggikko, Good luck with that. I don't know how long my garden will remain working, but at least Mercy got an orchid to plant and a cutting from her pomegranate tree -- which promptly died afterwards. What with the difficulty in catching angelfish, this could be a real challenge down the line.

[reggikko]

Some on Answers HQ are saying the problem comes from fertilizing. I am testing that out now and I will let you know. For now, I wouldn't fertilize anything. The two places I seem to have the most luck with angelfish are in Newcrest (stream, not the pond) by Avarice Acres and in the stream in the very front of Desert Bloom Park. Willow Creek behind the Museum is hit or miss for me, but can be good if you have several Sims fishing at the same time.

[MarianT]

Thanks for the tip about angelfish -- I've caught them in that place in Newcrest. And I rarely take time to fertilize, unless it's part of the aspiration.