Ramirez Family Album

What I wrote back in October 2008, when I first played the Ramirez family, is lost, but I still found the pictures in the storytelling folder, and here are a select few of them:

The Ramirez' house (still the original one Maxis assigned to them):

 The Ramirez family, as they are when the game begins: Lisa, Checo and Tessa.

Checo helping Tessa with her homework.

Lisa finding out she is pregnant...

...and just after having given birth to Ramon.

Checo looking after Ramon.

A fateful encounter: Checo meets and greets Kristen Singles.

They quickly realize they have three bolts for each other, and eventually, Checo moves in with Kristen and her friends and has a daughter with her, Silvia.

 By the time Ramon reaches toddler age, Checo has already left his wife and children.

When it is time to play the Singles household, we will meet Checo again.

The Ramirez Family: Week 3

- - - Update 29.1.2012 - - - For the moment, it is just Lisa and Ramon at the Ramirez' house, and Checo, Lisa's husband who left her for his three-bolt-love Kristen Singles, died the other day, leaving his widow and youngest son well off. Lisa is now 5 days from Elderhood and has, so far, seven best friends out of the twenty she needs to fulfill her lifetime want.

Tessa has graduated Summa Cum Laude in History in the meantime, and while Ramon is at school on that Monday morning, Lisa is happy to welcome her daughter back. Tessa adds the money she has saved during her years at college to the household account, making them a really wealthy family with more than 120.000 Simoleons.

Tessa moves into her old room, which is still very girlish, and starts looking for a job in the gamer career instantly (her lifetime want is to become Game Designer). She is not successful, but it is only Monday, after all, and she is optimistic as to what the future will hold.

"Your little brother will be so happy when he gets home from school and finds you here, love," Lisa says as the two women have Grandma's Comfort Soup for lunch, lovingly prepared by Tessa.

"I've made something for you..." Lisa hands her daughter a parcel.

It is a beautiful dress, which Tessa likes tons better than the outfit she age-transitioned into! "Why don't you make something for yourself as well, mum," she suggests.

Ramon is indeed happy to find his big sister at home when he returns from school. In the evening, he meets and greets Myra Moonbeam, but she has to go home; it is already dark, and her parents don't want her to be out at that time.

Lisa has listened to her daughter's advice and made herself a new outfit as well.

On Tuesday, Ramon proudly brings home his first A+ report.

Lisa, forever at her sewing machine, receives a special plaque for maximum enthusiasm in arts & crafts.

Today, Myra Moonbeam's twin brother Melrose has come home from school with Ramon.

Wednesday morning, Tessa finds a job as Platform Jumper - now working on her lifetime want begins in earnest!

Her mother has just made half of her own lifetime want come true: she now has 10 best friends.

Tessa is promoted right on her first day on the job and is now a power leverer.

Thursday morning before school, she plays in the garden with her little brother.

Lisa has now made all the outfits available for someone with a Silver Sewing Badge; she has just received her Golden Badge and from now on will be able to make customized outits. She is the first Sim in my game who has come that far!

On this Thursday, Paola Picaso accompanies Ramon home from school.

One of the hibiskus trees in the garden is hit by lightning, and the little girl gets dangerously close to watch the fire, but thankfully, the rain puts the fire out before anything can happen.

On Friday morning, the Gypsy Lady leaves the magic lamp on the Ramirez' door step. For now, the lamp is placed in Lisa's bedroom.

It is an eventful day, with Lisa turning into an Elder...

...and Ramon...

...turning into a teenager. He ends up with the Fortune Aspiration and the lifetime want of having six pets reach the top of their career. Not easy, but not too hard, either, I think. As another event worth mentioning, Tessa is promoted to Real Time Strategizer.

Another fire breaks out due to lightning, this time hitting the set of swings in the garden. And again, the rain puts the flames out, and nobody comes to any harm.

Saturday morning, Lisa puts on one of the customized outfits she is now able to make. This is much more appropriate than the formal floor-length gown she age-transitioned into, don't you think?

Silvia Singles, their half-sister, is invited over, and the three half-siblings spend the day together. (The dress Tessa is wearing here is also one of the customized ones made by Lisa.)

It is a memorable day, and Lisa puts the picture she has taken of the three "children" on the dining room wall.

Ramon befriends the stray cat Noodle, but he or she disappears before he can adopt the cat. Why is Tessa trimming the shrubs? Have the Ramirez' gotten rid of their gardener?

No, they have not - but the gardener does not work today, and since Ramon really wants to get into private school, everything needed to be spic and span for the evaluation visit. "I do hope my modest cooking is to your liking, Headmaster," Lisa smiles when they all sit down to eat the delicious pork chops she has prepared for the occasion. Ramon does get into private school with 96 out of 90 points.

On the Sunday, he meets, befriends and adopts the dog Alabama; his first step towards fulfilling his lifetime want! In the course of the afternoon, he teaches his dog the command "Come Here".

That's it for now - this family is good fun to play, what with the customized clothing, Tessa's career to manage and Ramon's and Lisa's lifetime wants to keep an eye on. So far, Lisa has not met another man she can imagine getting close with again, after first the separation from and then the death of her husband. Will she find love again late in life? What about Tessa, is she going to meet the custom-haired man in swimming clothes she would find most attractive? And how will she do in her career? And Ramon - are six pets going to leave him with enough time for doing well at school and finding himself a girlfriend? Let's find out next time we come back to the Ramirez family!

The Ramirez Family: Week 2

[Note: This was played and written in 2009. At that time, the story exchange on the official Sims2 website wasn't working properly for several months, which led to me losing almost every household's first week in New Maximiliania. If I can recover the pictures from Week One , they will appear in an extra entry as the "Ramirez Family Album".]

You probably remember the Ramirez family? They came to our game with "Open for Business", and in New Maximiliania, they still live in the house originally assigned to them by Maxis, but moving to this neighbourhood meant that they lost their furniture shop. Not to worry - they are busy enough as it is. Checo Ramirez has left his wife and children to live with his three-bolt-love Kristen Singles, who he has a daughter with. He is still welcome at his old place, though, and maintains a good relationship with both his children and - believe it or not - his wife.

This is Lisa, the wife who has become a single parent when Checo moved out. She is a Knowledge Sim with the strange lifetime want (for a Knowledge Sim!) of having 20 simultaneous best friends. Here you can see her potty-training her little boy, Ramon. Ramon was born only a day or two before his father left Lisa to move in with Kristen; he has not seen him since he has grown up into a toddler.

And of course, there is Tessa. She is still a child, but not for long!

Before she turns into a teenager on the Monday evening of their second week in New Max, she spends the afternoon with Cedric Cooke, a class mate.

Enjoy this time of your life while you are still a child, Tessa! You'll be an adult for such a long time... :-)

"Have you been doing your maths homework, sweety?" Lisa asks her daughter over dinner later. She is making sure the children are not lacking anything, only because their father does not live here anymore, even if it means (with a toddler in the house...!) that she often goes without enough sleep and sometimes hardly manages to get a shower or something to eat herself.

- - - A strange incident: two stray wolves passing by at the same time, both of them by the name Alegra! I really think the game's programmers could have avoided having so many stray dogs by that name. - - -

Tessa grew up at some point during the evening (later than 6.00 pm), and I forgot to take a picture. However, here she is on Tuesday morning on her way to school, a young lady! The lot decided for her aspiration to be Family, and her lifetime want turned out to be Game Designer.

Lisa has no live-in husband, but she has plenty of money (when the game started, the family had over 70.000 Simoleons - with the furniture shop not belonging to them anymore, I suppose that value was added to the household account), and is one of the few Sims in New Maximiliania who enlists the help of a gardener and a maid. Seems only fair, since she has to raise her two children without any practical help from her husband.

Tessa does, of course, help as well, for instance by getting a bottle for her little brother, so that her mother can finally take a bath in peace.

Learning to talk is the last skill on little Ramon's list; now he is a "fully trained" toddler :-)

On Wednesday, Lisa gets her Bronze Sewing Badge after making 10 or 11 pot holders; she has 6 creativity points. (By Friday, she already has her Silver Sewing Badge, after only 2 wide curtains and 1 teddy bear!)

Thursday evening at 6.00 pm, Ramon turns into a child.

Now he gets his own room, not just a crib and changing table in his mother's bedroom anymore! Lisa has the former study redecorated and furnished for him; it is small, but he has it all to himself, and is very happy about it.

Now that he is not a toddler anymore, his sister plays with him more often. But, Tessa, shouldn't you be wearing a bit more in this kind of weather?!

And too right I warned her! She wakes up during the night with a flu.

On Saturday, Lisa invites Checo and Silvia over. She thinks it is about time Ramon meets his half-sister; Tessa has been over to the house where Checo and Kristen live with Silvia, but Ramon has never met her.

Soon, the three of them are engaged in a water balloon fight...

...and later Ramon and Silvia play on the swings; they become friends during that afternoon.

The three half-siblings gather around the dining table, and Ramon tells his half-sister Silvia that their big sister is soon going to pack her bags and move to college.

It looks as if Tessa and the Dad who left her do not get along that well. But this picture is giving the wrong impression - they actually have a 100 points relationship.

Ramon is happy to see his Dad!

On Sunday, his mother helps him setting up the lemonade stand that used to be Tessa's. I didn't know that passers-by can buy lemonade without being greeted first!

Tessa maximizes her music enthusiasm and is now in The Zone.

Later that evening, she applies for scholarships (she gets two; one for good grades and one for her high creativity skill) and moves to college - very early, because she is still 9 days from adulthood, but her father is already an elderly Sim, and his lifetime want is to see 3 children graduate from college.
Lisa, in the meantime, has been somewhat neglecting her lifetime want of 20 simultaneous best friends; she is now 5 days from elderhood and has 8 best friends. 

What is Ramon going to be like as a teenager? How is Tessa getting on at college? Will Lisa remain without a man to share her life forever? I don't know yet myself - but I am sure this was not the last we've seen of the Ramirez family :-)