The Hart-Stacks Family: Week 1

We start our next chapter in this row of tiny town houses in New Maximiliania. Each house is, at the moment, inhabited by one single tenant. The one living in the green house is who we have come to see now:

Jane Stacks, a college graduate with a degree in Psychology. She is a Family Sim and wants to have six grandchildren - knowing a thing or two about psychology could be useful there :-)

While she is still waiting for her sweetheart to arrive, someone else seems to have found theirs: Andrew Martin and Monica Bratford are exchanging some... erm... neigbhourly pleasantries on Jessica Peterson's front steps.

After a few minutes, Jane's visitor is here: It is Matthew Hart, who she met and fell in love with at college. The two of them share the same lifetime want and have two bolts for each other. Matthew brings 18.226 Simoleons with him; together, the young couple have now more than 52.000 Simoleons! Not bad to find a starter home to raise a family in, is it!

The rented town house would have been too small - none of the rooms is big enough for a double bed, for instance - and so Jane and Matthew move to the older part of New Maximiliania and buy this handsome home for their future family.

And right on Monday, when they move in, they start to work towards their lifetime want :-)

Later, Matthew prepares Grandma's Comfort Soup. It is always useful to have someone in the household who can make that soup, since it is very good against colds and flus, and the cold season is soon going to start.

Both Matthew and Jane make some minor adjustments to their appearance in order to raise their mutual attraction from 2 to 3 bolts: Matthew's turn-ons are red hair and being a good cook; Jane already is quite a good cook, and now she changes her hair colour to red. Jane's turn-ons are custom hair and high cleaning skill; I don't have any custom content, but strangely enough, in the choice of hair styles, I still find some that show the * symbol for CC, and so Matthew gets the one that is least horrible :-P But what happened to Jane's figure?! Maybe you remember that, while she was still studying at college, she worked hard to lose some weight, assisted by her housemate Allegra Gorey - and look at her now! The tummy-free shirt is not really to your advantage, sorry, Jane...

The knitted jumper covers her a lot better and is also a lot more sensible now that we have entered autumn. Sure enough, after the changing of hair styles and acquiring some more skills (cooking for Jane, cleaning for Matthew), the two of them are firm 3-bolters!

And Matthew is obviously very happy about that :-) The welcome committee at the new house consists of Cassandra Roseland (nee Goth), Jodie Larson and Ajay Loner.

On Tuesday, first Matthew is invited to Sue's Secret Kitchen...

...and later, while she is taking an afternoon nap, Jane.

She wakes up a lot later than she meant to - it is actually bedtime, and Matthew has crept in between the sheets quietly so as not to disturb her. Why am I so tired? Jane thinks.

The next day, it becomes obvious where that tiredness came from! "To our baby," Jane exclaims. Matthew is the happiest Sim in all of New Maximiliania!

Later, he meets and greets Herbert Goodie, the Infallibly Good Warlock. They become friends, and who knows - maybe one day Matthew will want to learn the path of the light. (You will have noticed that I have not sent him and Jane to work; they still have plenty of money left, and should it run out, they can always dig for treasures, sell paintings and so on.)

On Thursday, Matthew takes a walk to Freya's Rayments. He only has those ugly shorts to wear, and they are certainly not warm enough for autumn and winter. He also gets some new clothes for Jane.

Yes, autumn has firmly set in, and Matthew can be seen on their front lawn, raking leaves and sporting a new pair of jeans and cosy jumper.

Jane takes a nap at least once a day now, with her pregnancy going well (she was sick only once) but making her tired easily.

On Friday morning at 16 minutes past 4...

...Helena Stacks is born! (Helena begins with H, just like her Dad's surname, Hart. Normally, I give my Sims a name that starts with the same letter as their surname, but there are already so many Sims with S in New Maximiliania, and so I decided to give her a name with an H.)

And Jane has immediately shed several pounds, so that she can wear one of the new outfits Matthew bought for her the other day.

Their sleeping pattern is now, of course, not as regular as it used to be :-)

Jane is determined not to gain so much weight back and takes up jogging again, just like she used to do when she still lived with Allegra Gorey in their small house on campus.

She is now a member of the Platinum Gym, while Matthew has just received his membership card to the Aspirational Laboratories. Twice in one night he discovers a new star and gets 500 Simoleons every time; a welcome sum that gets deposited into their bank account immediately.

On Sunday, the delicious scent of Christmas cookies lies in the air at Jane's and Matthew's house.

They have a friend from college over (Klara Vonderstein), eat cookies and drink champagne. "To Christmas, and may the Christmas spirit be with every New Maximilianian!" Matthew exclaims.

Sure enough, Santa himself has heard of the little celebration and comes to join in :-) He leaves a stereo which is placed in the raised living room area of the house.

And there is another Christmas present for Jane and Matthew: Helena grows up to be a cute toddler with green eyes, brown hair and a happy smile :-)

Let me end the first week at this family-oriented household with a shot of their front porch. Doesn't it look cosy? 

Matthew and Jane are not married - are they going to tie the knot? Is Matthew going to look into witchcraft through his friend Herbert Goodie? Will Jane have another baby? Shouldn't be too difficult to find out!