Jessica Immortalized
Sam, the girls, and I had an amazing trip to our vacation home in China. We left the day after the girls' teen birthday and spent 3 weeks there. Jori and Jemma spent the whole trip working on their skills.
Jori has always dreamed of a career and athletics and has had a keen interest in the martial arts since she was a child. We hadn't even unpacked our bags yet and she was out the door and off to the academy. She quickly progressed through the different levels and in less than 2 weeks she was a 10th level black belt. Her focus quickly shifted to competing in ranked sparring tournaments. She achieved her lifetime wish of Martial Arts Master mere days after earning her black belt. Even before her final match she was confident of a victory.
Look at the concentration on her face.
Now all she needs to do is practice her meditation and board breaking. We bought a board breaker and a training dummy to bring home with us so that Sam could recreate Jori's zen garden in our back yard. I'm confident she will achieve her goals well before her elder birthday at this rate. She also increased her athletic skill to level 8, so she should be well prepared for her chosen career when she graduates.
Jemma has decided she wants to be a scientist when she grows up. She spent our entire vacation studying gardening books, watching various educational TV programs, and fishing like a mad woman.
She was determined to catch enough of the local fish breeds to be able to stock the pond in our park across the street. In the process she maxed her fishing skill. Here she is with her first dragon fish. When we got back to Sunset Valley she proudly deposited 4 different breeds of koi, some goldfish, and some dragonfish in our local pond.
She managed to gain 8 levels of gardening skill as well as 4 levels each in logic and cooking. She has such a keen mind and wants to learn about everything.
Socially the girls could not be more different. Jemma is warm and likeable. She makes friends quite easily and has a great relationship with both Sam and I. Jori, on the other hand, is competitive and can be a bit hard to take until you get to know her. She gets along fine with me, but not so much with Sam and Jemma. She barely talks to her sister, and Jemma has confided in me that she doesn't like Jori very much. I tactfully suggested to Jori that she spend some time with her sister and was pleased to see them talking quite intently a while later.
Sam and I were just as busy as the girls were. Sam got it into his head that he wanted to be Mr. Fixit, so he spent his time studying some books on Handiness and managed to upgrade every single appliance in our vacation home. When he didn't have a wrench in his hand he found time to practice his painting and sculpture. I thought I was a renaissance Sim, but my husband has maxed handiness, gardening, painting, sculpture, and fishing and managed to reach level 10 in his gardening career shortly after we returned home. He amazes me!
I was mostly glued to my easel. The only thing standing between me and immortality is $15,000 worth of painting sales and my elder birthday. I churned out one masterpiece after another and gave them to Sam to hold on to. I lost track of how many paintings I did, but they ended up selling for $150,000 at the consignment shop when we got home. Sam and I both received awards from the city for our career achievements and they hold a place of honor in our family museum.
The day we got back home was Sam's birthday. He insisted that he did not want a party, so the big moment passed nearly unnoticed in our kitchen that evening.
Even though he's an elder now, he still has the boyish face I fell in love with as a teenager.
My birthday fell several days later and Dad, Sam, and the twins insisted on throwing me a pool party. We only invited close friends and family, but it seems that more people showed up than we expected.
Dad spent the whole day cooking. Here he is showing off his culinary prowess. I thought those egg rolls were gonna land on the floor!
He put on quite a spread. Everything was so good that there were hardly any leftovers.
That young vampire in the picture is Sam's half-brother, Giuseppe Hart. Yes, our daughters have an uncle the same age as them!
Emma Hatch and Sam's dad cutting the rug while my best friend, Kaylynn Langerak, has fun on our trampoline in the background.
Time for the birthday girl to blow out the candles...the fellow in the dark blue swim trunks is my cousin Mortimer Goth. He certainly has aged well!
The young man with the khaki shorts and long hair is Jori's boyfriend, Jeremey Langerak, my friend Kaylynn's son. More on him in a bit.
And here I am as an elder. Same hair, just whiter, and a few more wrinkles on my face, but it's still me.
For now I'm keeping my white hair, but I may take a trip to the salon if I can't get used to it.
Sam painted my portrait and made my ice sculpture.
The first try didn't come out so good. Geez, everybody's a comedian!
And here I am taking my first bite of the ambrosia that Dad saved in the food replicator. I reached immortality at age 74.
Now back to Jori and Jeremey...they've known each other since they were children, but never really paid attention to one another. I got a call from Kaylynn shortly after we returned from China that Jori had stopped by to visit and she and Jeremey just hit it off.
They were going steady within a day. Dad and I enjoyed lunch with him while Jori watches to make sure we don't embarrass her.
I couldn't be happier! The two of them get along like they were made for one another. It may be premature, but I think Jeremy will be a fine addition to our family after the kids graduate. Fast forward a couple of days and I learned that Kaylynn had passed away unexpectedly. I couldn't stand the thought of Jeremey kicking around that big house all by himself, so I went over to see if he wanted to stay with us - I know his mom would have done the same for my children if the situation had been reversed. But when I got there it was like Jekyll and Hyde - the sweet young man I had known for so many years was as nasty as could be. At first I thought it was just the grief talking, but I'm convinced he's mean-spirited. He turned down my offer to live with us, which may be for the best. I have to find a way to discourage Jori from seeing him, but if I'm not careful I'll just drive her to him instead. Unfortunately there aren't many eligible boys her age, just paper carriers, baby sitters, and vampires. I'm torn up with guilt, Kaylynn would be turning over in her grave if she knew how I feel about her son, but I have a dynasty to think of. I just hope Jori sees reason and agrees to break it off with him...
Lest you think it's all drama around here, there is some good news. Mom paid us a visit a few nights ago. I caught her and Dad acting like newlyweds.
She doesn't show up often, but we all enjoy it when she does.
Now Lucia, on the other hand, doesn't rest in her grave at all. She wanders through the house at any hour of the day or night. It was shocking at first, but we are all used to her by now. Here she is spending some quality time with our new butler, Kurt.
Shortly afterwards one of our dining room chairs took on a life of its own...
She even stopped Dad in the garden one morning to complain about someone sleeping in her bed!
I told Dad that no one would think badly of us if we moved her head stone to the town cemetery, but he's having none of that. It's all good, though. It keeps things unpredictable in our house.
Jessica Starr - Generation 2LTW - Renaissance Sim
Career - Painting
Supermax Skill - Painting
Other Maxed Skills - Sculpture, Photography,
Building - Sam's Summer Shack (formerly Hogan's Deep Fried Diner)
Property - Stoney Falls
LTRs - Fast Learner, Extra Creative, Fertility Treatment
Best Friends - Sam (Sekemoto) Starr, Jackson Starr, Jorianne Starr, Jemma Starr, Kaylynn Langerak, Amir Hart
Black Ops - Deliver a Painting to China, Deliver a Painting to Egypt, Telescopic Metal, Sims on Ice, Sculpt a Suspect, An Old Ruse
Portraits - Toddler, Child, Teen, Young Adult, Adult, Elder
Sculptures - Teen, Young Adult, Adult, Elder
Photos - None
