The Luck o’ the Shanleys

I think she had more fun not meditating — here she is making those scary faces that Sims make when they play guitar.

Mia plays guitar
“Joe Satriani, eat your heart out!”

Time flew by until Delaney had her next birthday. I meant to take more pictures of her toddler years, but really, all she did was play with the bunny head. Not very interesting picture-wise. Now, if she had thrown the bunny at her dad or something, THAT would have been interesting. Anyway, here’s Delaney after her transition to child:

Delaney Shanley
“Hey, picture-taking person — would you mind not standing in front of the TV?”

She’s no great beauty, but her looks kinda grew on me. By the way, I’m happy to report that Delaney inherited her father’s Niceness (7) and not her mother’s (3). Unfortunately she’s also Sloppy and Lazy, but the Shanley Outgoingness and Playfulness make up for it. I love Outgoing Sims! They seem to be so much more…animated.

One evening Demi Shanley (Mia’s grandmother) was walking by Niadon, so I had Marcel go out and greet her. Demi, Parker (Mia’s bro), and Aurora (Mia’s aunt) are the only Shanleys who still keep in contact with Mia. The others didn’t have very high relationship scores with her when she left for college, so they’ve pretty much forgotten about her. Sad, really. Demi’s always calling and coming over, though, which is cool.

Marcel greets Demi
“And a good evening to you, grandmother-in-law!”

Of course the first thing Demi wanted to do was retrieve the tempting piece of cake from the tongue of the evil cow plant (hmm…evil cow plant…evil cow mascot…does Maxis have a thing against bovines?). Thankfully I had it all fenced in so she couldn’t access it. I’m not ready to have the cow plant kill someone just yet.

Demi and the cow plant
“But…but…I want cake!”

Since Demi couldn’t have the cow plant cake, she opted for spaghetti instead. I had Delaney sit at the table so she could meet her great-grandmother.

Demi eats dinner with Marcel and Delaney
“Grandma Demi, are your best friends green like mine are?”

While Demi was visiting, Mia went into labor with her second child.

Demi witnesses the birth
“Oh merciful heavens, please make her stop screaming!”

Mia gave birth to another lovely little girl. I gave her the supposedly Irish name Sierra (although I think the Irish form is Ciara, which is how I got Kiara from Gen 2 in the old legacy). It’s probably not really Irish at all, but I like it, and I’m trying to stick to at least semi-Irish names for as long as I can. I’ll probably get sick of them around gen 5 like I did last time, so keep those other name suggestions a’comin’!

Mia kisses Sierra
“Oooh, my little Sierra Mist…”

I was happy that Sierra’s not a clone child — she has Mia’s green eyes instead of Marcel’s grey ones. Huzzah! Delaney seemed pretty excited to have a little sister.

Delaney cheers for Sierra
“Yay! I can’t wait until she grows up so I can boss her around!”

(continued on Page 3)

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!