The Luck o’ the Shanleys

Last we left the new Legacy branch of the Shanleys, Mia the Legacy founder had just given birth to her first child, Delaney, ringing in the 2nd generation of my University Legacy Challenge and the 11th generation of the Shanley family. As we all know, babies aren’t too terribly difficult to take care of — it’s the toddlers that kill ya. So I let Mia and Marcel enjoy their precious few days as parents of an infant before the onset of the Dreaded Toddler Years.

This is just one of those “random” snapshots showing happy Sim domestic life as Mia serves her first salmon dinner. (Regarding Mia’s tee-shirt: I just have to say that I saw Duran Duran in concert for the first time last week, and they were AWESOME. Yes, I’m old.)

Mia serves dinner
“Where did this plate come from? I could have sworn I was only holding the platter!”

Meanwhile Marcel the Knowledge Sim has been rolling up some odd non-Knowledge-like wants. For example, he wants to write and publish a Great Novel. I’ve only seen that happen with Fortune Sims. He also had a weird want to work in a cafeteria. I hated to break it to him that he wasn’t in college anymore and would never be going back, so he’d better give up that particular dream.

I did have him start writing the Great American Novel, though.

Marcel writes his novel
“Now for a title…maybe ‘The Llama Code’? ‘Marcel Shanley and the Half-Blood Llama’? ‘The Lord of the Llamas’?”

Marcel took a few breaks from his writing to feed and cuddle his little daughter while Mia was working on her skills.

Marcel holds Delaney
“She’s not dating until she’s at LEAST 27.”

It wasn’t long before Delaney had her first birthday. It’s so weird not having a zillion people in the house to cheer and raise a ruckus during birthday transitions.

Mia holds Delaney while Marcel cheers
“C’mon, Marcel, is that all you can do? You used to be a school mascot, for crying out loud!”

Delaney gets thrown into the air for her birthday whirl —

Mia throws Delaney into the air
“Look, Marcel — she’s ascending into the heavens!”

And here’s the little dickens after coming back down to earth. She definitely has Marcel’s eyes.

Mia holds Delaney
*silence as both mother and daughter completely zone out*

Within a day or so, Mia discovered she was pregnant again. She got the usual bout of nausea, so I had her rejuvenate and meditate. She had to keep jumping out of meditation to take care of Delaney, though, so I just gave up on it.

Mia feels sick
“Oh no, not again…”

(continued on Page 2)

18 thoughts on “The Luck o’ the Shanleys

  1. Pff xD Stop yer complaining
    o_o You should try getting redhair inta the picture, alot of the kids have been blondehaired lately.
    Who’s your next heir? =D

  2. Horray! I love reading about your family. I don’t have University so I’m spending a lot of my time reading blog entries like this and scratching my head – oh, and drooling too. $10,497 a day!? That’s more then the Athletic career! What is up with the Cow Plant by the way? What is it? Ok, enough questions off to read other blogs, keep up the great work. :)

  3. Mieko – LOL…OK, I’ll stop complaining. And hey, I thought you liked blondies? Heh. As for the next heir, maybe I’ll have them both go to college, and then you guys can pick.

    Bitsy – Hi there! The cow plant is the career reward for the Natural Science track. It has to be fed meat on a regular basis or it will try to lure people into its gaping maw with a piece of cake. Once it chomps down the person (ew), its udders (ew) fill up with elixir of life, which Sims can then milk and drink (ew!). Christine used it to great effect over on her blog.

  4. “But…but I want cake!” Hilarious! The reason I post is I have one suggestion for a boy name and one for a girl. For the girl Niamh because I see quite a blonde streak going on. It’s supposed to mean girl of the golden hair (I think) and it was the 11th most popular girl name in Ireland. As for boys’ names I came up with Quinn meaning intellegent. I think it can be used as a girl’s name too but it’s a little ironic what it means if you’ve ever watched Daria. Sorry for the babble!

  5. That is rather gross… and Christine named her cow plant Bitsy! How funny is that? Thanks for pointing me to the blog, Jen. ;)

  6. $10,497?! Wow. I haven’t yet played through the university part of University all the way through, so I haven’t had a chance to see the new jobs or how much they pay. Now I can’t wait for my University family to get going faster!

  7. Jen, how did you change Sierra’s hair! Mine seems to be hereditary — they all get their parents’ hair styles. I keep changing them when they become teens because I don’t like the styles so much. Avril has turned out rather pretty because of her change in hair style :)

  8. Whoa! That’s a hell lot of simoleons. I guess that sorta makes the challenge easier, but still I’m enjoying the family. I was just thinking though, to get any points for scolarships you need to get at least $9000 or over worth (roughly) which means that’s around 9 scholarships! which makes me think it’s not possible for sims to go to college straight after childhood years.

  9. Hello Jen, wow, i love when you make big updates:)
    And you right about this floor, the sims don´t feel very well with this floor, i don´t know why.
    With the other ones i don´t have any problems, just this one.
    And i laugh when you say: “Joe Satriani; eat your heart out”, so cool.
    I really like Joe Satriani LOL.
    Keep going with your very good humour, i love it!!!;)

  10. Whoa! Man they sure are raking in the dough with Marcel’s promotion. Goodness! That will definitly be helpful to remodel. I got Damion into the Natural Science tract just for that cowplant which he got the moment he accepted the job. I have quite a few unfortunates in Gypsy’s Landing that I’m waiting to walk by and lure them with that thing. Muahahauha.

    Can’t wait for that next Harry Potter book either eh?

    BTW, thank’s for the theme idea. Will use that idea next ;)

    Name ideas hmmm, I like to go for the more exotic sounding names soo here are some to get you thinking;

    Boys:

    Ailbhis – (AL-vis) 6th C. Irish saint; perhaps also can be Ailbhe.

    Alsandair – Irish also can be Alexander

    Blathmac – (BLAW-vak) Old Irish=blath “flower” + mac “son.” Popular in early Ireland

    Girls:

    Ailionora – (e-le-NOH-ra) Irish = Eleanor

    Airmid – (AIR-mit) daughter of a physician Dian Cecht who was one of the Tuatha De Danann, an expert in the use of herbs for medicinal purposes.

    Bryg – (BREE) from Celtic root brig “high, mighty.” Name borne by 13 early saints. Variant of the name Brighid

    Now I gotta see what Neroli gives birth to ..girl . boy. twins? …who knows LOL

    Later V.

  11. Yay for that chance card! I’ve hit it twice so far, it is my savior.

    About names, here’s a site that lists Irish-specific names. You can browse over it and decide what you like: http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/iri.html

    Marcel looks a LOT like my aunt’s boyfriend, only with shorter hair. It’s amusing and disturbing at the same time. ;)

  12. “Luck of the IRISH!” HOLY COW PLANT! Over $10,000 for working only one day! That Natural Science career track … woohoo! I mean geez! The top of the traditional careers I think maxed at like $2000 or something.

    Go you! Wow … I absolutely love your picture quality. And this story had me laughing OUT LOUD (at work). *looks around sheepishly and hopes no one is listening* Hehe.

    Your home is very beautiful. Did you follow a floorplan or anything like that?

  13. Becki: Kids can use the mirror to change their appearance, too. In fact, that’s all they can do with the mirror…

    Bitsy: I was wondering where I got the name for the cow plant from! I must have seen your comments a few times and that was the first thing that popped to mind when I wanted to name the plant. Not that I think you are a cow plant or anything like that. Honest! I just checked out your blog and really enjoyed it. :)

    Jen: Sorry for taking over your comments. I just get carried away sometimes… I loved the update! I”m amazed you are able to keep up with two simultaneous Legacy families AND a blog. I can barely keep up with one family…

  14. Hey Jen! Great update! I managed to get a little bit of internet time up here, but not much. I can’t wait to see how the girls turn out in their teenage years! Well…I have a few name suggestions! They’re all Irish names.

    Female:
    Agata — kind
    Leanah
    Cailyn
    Dana
    Leila
    Nualah

    Male:
    Alroy — red-headed
    Ailin — handsome
    Blair
    Carlin
    Hurley
    Quinn — intelligent
    Ronan
    Rory
    Torrence

    That’s it for now. I hope that gives you a few choices for Irish names and that you like some of them! Well keep up the great work! I’ll be back on Sunday! :-)

  15. Hi Jen!
    I’ve got a boy’s name that’s not really Irish, but my Grandad was Irish and he was called Joe…but he died a while ago, so it might bring some of his spirit back, or something like that…
    E-liz :)

  16. Angelia — As a matter of fact, I did follow a floor plan for Niadon. It’s from a Sarah Susanka book called Home by Design. I’m a big fan of all of Susanka’s books. The houses she designs/writes about just look so nice and cozy. :-)

  17. Hey Jen! Sorry for not posting for a while…darn work. However, I am immensly enjoying your posts, as usual, and are still very fun even with my own Sims 2. I’m thinking of starting my own blog over the summer, but we’ll see. Keep up the wonderful work! Bye!