Maude here, back from my little vacation. How I missed you all! And in celebration of our new home, I have a brand new family for you to meet. I didn’t expect to find them interesting at first — they weren’t the sort of people with whom I would have associated when I was alive, as snooty as that may sound — but within minutes I was won over by their closeness and easy camaraderie. Those things can be rare in a family with two teenagers! Goodness knows, if you had stuck my family in a tiny trailer house, we would have murdered each other in 20 seconds flat. But the Kilmans, despite their close quarters, seemed to get along splendidly…at least until tragedy struck. Isn’t that always the way?

Here’s a little family portrait:

One of the first things I noticed about the Kilmans was that they all thought very highly of Sid, the father of the family. They all loved Sid so much that they wanted to be wherever he was, even if that happened to be the bathroom.

Sid was a rather likeable fellow, very easygoing, with a love of sports and books. In fact, he had just gotten a job as a Team Mascot for the SimCity Llamas and was constantly working out so that he could actually play ball instead of just prance around in a silly suit.

His wife, Rhonda, didn’t have a job, but stayed home and watched TV most of the day. She liked to be spend time with the kids when they got home from school (even if all they did was talk about their dad).

The elder of the two children, Joey, was a bit of a layabout. He liked to stretch out on the sofa.

Sometimes he switched to the other sofa.

He also enjoyed teasing his sister playfully, though it sometimes upset his mother.

Joey dreamed of being rich someday. He also worshipped his father and wanted to be just like him when he grew up.

His sister Tiffy was a bit of a worrywart, though she could be fun when she didn’t have her nose buried in a book. She was also fairly independent and enjoyed cooking her own meals, especially macaroni and cheese.

She wanted more than anything to get into private school so she could get the best education possible, but her grades weren’t quite up to snuff, and she knew the headmaster wouldn’t approve of her family. As long as they lived in that little trailer, she thought, they would never impress anyone.

Especially with her father burning TV dinners…

…and her mother telling everyone in the neighborhood about it.

But while Tiffy and Joey dreamed of a better life, Rhonda and Sid lived in the moment. They were the picture of wedded bliss.

Aren’t they sweet together? It almost brings a tear to my eye, considering what happened a few days later. Those poor Kilmans! What will become of them? Stay tuned to find out! This is Maude, saying “good night”!

(Jen’s note: The Kilmans started out as a little experiment of mine, just for fun, to see how much the Sims would do without me interfering. I got Sid a job and made the kids do their homework, but otherwise I mostly sat back and watched them. It was fun to see their personalities come out — Joey really did lounge on the sofa pretty much all the time, Rhonda was always watching TV, and Sid and Tiffy liked to read books. And they really did get along well with each other. I grew quite fond of them!)