Chapter Four: The Unexpected Ghost

At the end of our last chapter, Brent had just joined the family.  His lovely wife did in fact get pregnant from their first date night. I would say Anita was easy, but she had to work for her woohoo. Poor 'fraidy cat Brent, it was ONLY two ghosts out...

I suspected she was when she was wanting massages and spa visits after their night of woohoo, but didn't have it confirmed until after Brent moved in.  He doted on his wife during her pregnancy.  She did get her spa visit and walked out and ran right to the hospital to give birth to their first child a son, Adam Shocklee.

At this point I gave in and bought the baby swing from the Sims 3 store because I had heard good things about it. However my Sims NEVER do what I expect and this device soon became a method of torture.  Adam would frequently have either his Aunt or his mother come in and put his swing on high speed making him nauseous.   They loved to taunt him in the swing....

Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to Analia's life bar and one day while she was gardening Grim came for her..

Her loving son in law rushed out to watch and of course being the coward that he is...immediately passed out from his grief...or something like that..

The household was greatly saddened by the passing of Analia who was dearly loved their Rockstar mother.  Analia didn't achieve Rockstar status until her children were adults so they didn't get the hidden rocker trait, they do however have the hidden trait: Pizza Appreciator.

During their mourning, Adam aged up to toddler.

Anita also was pregnant again because both she and her husband rolled wants for another baby.  One of them wanted a boy, one wanted a girl.  I decided to be silly and see if I could get twins one boy and one girl, by getting the fertility treatment for Anita, and then having her eat watermelons AND apples.  It didn't work though and she ended up with two twin girls.  Once again giving birth after a treatment at the spa...

 

 

The above picture was the only picture I took during the entirety of the twins babyhood apparently which goes to show I suck at taking pictures.  Angela took great joy in torturing the twins with the baby swings of Doom. Apparently her dislike of children manifested in her torturing her nieces.

Angela aged up to adult, then Adam aged to child, and the same day both his sisters aged up to toddlers.  It was a domino effect of birthdays and I got crappy pictures for every single one of them.

Adam adored playing with his sisters and really took to being a big brother.  Here is he playing with the younger of the twins Aloysia.

Anita shocked me one day by autonomously teaching her older twin daughter, Aleksia, to walk.

The household ghosts have fun on a regular basis torturing poor Brent.  There are five of them now and they love to haunt, and they never get tired of making poor Brent faint. 

One night I was trying to be good to Brent and have him get some woohoo from his loving wife Anita, when he got out of the hot tub and got old on me. (Oops, I suck at birthdays, really I do!)

Since Angela, Anita, and Brent were all trying to get to the top of their career fields, a baby sitter was brought in while the twins were toddlers to try and help, but it didn't go very well.....

Finally it was a birthday day where all the kids would be able to use the toilet on their own...(I feel I should mention here I did get all 3 kids to learn to walk, talk, and use the potty in spite of how busy the house was at times)

First up was Adam...

Or it should have been, but for some reason at this point my Sims got crazy on me so we're going to pretend that that's the order they grew up in and you're not going to notice Aleksia in the background there as a child ok? Mm hmm yep that's right no child Aleksia in that photo of Adam growing up...

Adam Shocklee
Traits: Excitable, Friendly, Light Sleeper, Never Nude
LTW: Culinary Librarian

Next up was Aleksia, ok fine, she was the first one to grow up..happy?!

Aleksia Shocklee
Traits: Brave, Evil, Loves Outdoors
LTW:  Become Astronaut

AHhh that explains it, She's evil...messing up my birth order...already the evil shows...

And last but not least...

Aloysia Shocklee
Traits: Absent-minded, Athletic, Brave
LTW: Master of the Arts

Apparently both of the twins are the exact opposite of their father. It amuses me that cowardice lead to Bravery...

Speaking of cowards...a common sight around our house..

Now you might notice it's daylight..well apparently my ghosts like to haunt into the morning and have been known to hang around til the kids are almost running out the door to school...Needless to say this does NOT help Brent get to work on time in a good mood and his climb to leader of the free world is very slow.

Somewhere along the way the twins aged up to teens, but well I only got the spin, and I didn't get a good after shot ..so you'll just have to wait to see them, but they are in fact now teens.  I've told you their lifetime wants and they rolled those on their own.  Every child in the Shocklee family rolls the want to be a creature robot cross breeder first, but since I've already fulfilled this they do not get to have that wish.  The first lifetime want wish they roll up on their own that we haven't had they get to keep so I'm not just getting to pick my lifetime wants.

Now about this time, Angela got upset with me.  She knew she wasn't the heir of the family, but she was almost an old woman and had never had a kiss.  She yelled at me that she was a great kisser, and wanted to practice, and well she wanted to practice with her nephew - in - law, Brent's son Ephraim.  He was the first and only man she ever rolled up a want to kiss so I let it happen...and well she got her night of passion with Ephraim. I"m seriously considering moving him in, because he is a fun Sim and I like his name, but I haven't decided yet.

 My ghosts love to complain their tired while they make poor Brent pass out and yes each of these pictures of him passed out are from different days and times.  He really does get tortured by them....

Now about this time, Brent wanted to throw a fundraiser for work, he also had an opportunity where he needed to get contributions to his campaign from 5 people.  I decided to let him have his party.  I invite all the guests, put out a banquet, put on some music. I have him make the rounds of his guests and get his donations..and then I let everyone go free will and I stop paying attention for a few minutes....

I hear some strange music, and look over and this is what I see. I immediately pause and go "OH crap, he died!?" My first reaction was that Brent had been scared too death or something, BUT it wasn't him.  One of his guests was apparently old enough that Grim was coming for him due to old age.  I immediately start snapping pictures and paying attention because now we got something going on!

Aloysia decides to take time to get to know Grim while the party goes on and finds out that Grim is Easily Impressed, Mean Spirited and Brave.  Maybe some day he'll call her for a date?

Ira left behind an urn, and rather than sending it to the graveyard, I decided to add him to the household graveyard, maybe a later generation will make ghost babies with him?


By the end of this update, Anita and Angela have both achieved their lifetime wants and now everything they do will be counted.  Brent is still working on getting to the top of his career to achieve his lifetime want. He's is at level 7.  All 3 teens are working and we now have 6 ghosts on the lot. (Aimee, Jean, Eddie, Brandy, Analia, and Ira Libby)

Random Challenge Photos:

 Brent used the house teleporter to try and go to the town square one day and it failed. I then tried to have him fix it and it shocked him..I realized I really shouldn't have an unskilled sim try to fix it and promptly called the repair man.

Ghosts Aimee and Analia gang up on Ghost Brandy and torment her for daring to marry Eddie after Aimee had died while the family sleeps one night...

Chapter Three: Three Funerals and a Wedding

At the end of my last update Analia and Jean Shocklee had two daughters Angela and Anita. Analia was a good mom taking the time to dote on her daughters and teach both of them how to walk, talk, and use the potty like her mother did for her. Jean worked on his career and making as many friends as he could as fast
as he could. He was an elder when he wed his young wife and he wanted to help the family.

Eddie was working on his painting skills while waiting to see if his new wife, Brandy, would become a 5 star chef before she fulfilled his dreams by dying, and hoping he would outlive her.

Jean was up to 18 friends when he decided to quit his job and pick a new one in the hopes of meeting new people. Everyone he knew he was friends with. He didn't make new friends, so he ran around town until he found his 20 friends. He achieved his LTW making his points count and then went to work, got arrested and
right as he walked out the door to go home from his night in jail, died.

Eddie swung by his way home from being out on the town picking up his tombstone and taking it home.

Brandy plugged away at her career working her way all the way up to level 8 in the cooking career before dying right as she sat down to dinner. Eddie dashed out to the patio gasped and then delighted while mourning in achieving his dream of seeing the ghost of his rich spouse.

What amused me is right before Brandy passed I had been trying to have them get along and woohoo, and she kept accusing him of cheating. I can only assume that on one of the many times I let Eddie do his own thing, he wooed his deceased first wife, and Brandy found out about it. Because Brandy contributed so many points to the challenge by dying for Eddie, I decided she gets to haunt too. (Plus I suspect hours of hilarity
with these 3 ghosts).

After Jean and Brandy's passing, the household mourned. Her step granddaughters had gotten along well with Brandy and were heartbroken as was Eddie. He truly loved both of his wives. Analia ended up crying to her dead husband about the heartbreak of him having passed on and then she woohooed him. I had hoped to have her have his ghost baby, but unfortunately she aged up too quickly.

While the household was busy handling two deaths so close together, I sort of missed having them pay their bills and the Repo man showed up. He took 2 counter tops, a brand new stove, their dishwasher, and their toilet paper roll.I guess he needed tp for his bunghole because it was the last thing he took before leaving.

Eddie was having to deal with both of his now dead wives yelling at him, so for the peace of the household I bought him a clean slate. I don't know when or what he did to cheat on Brandy, but I wanted to do as much
with him as I could before he died now that he could count towards the challenge.

Now before Jean and Brandy had passed Angela and Anita had grown up to teens and had fairly uneventful childhoods. Analia aged to Elder and her daughters aged to young adults within days of each other.

Angela Shocklee
Traits: Dislikes Kids, Friendly, Great Kisser, Heavy Sleeper, Loves Outdoors
LTW: Star News Anchor

Anita Shocklee
Traits: Easily-Impressed, Heavy Sleeper, Lucky, No Sense of Humor, Slob,
LTW:  Become Creature Robot Cross Breeder. She rolled
the desire while she was still a child. Angela didn't roll her desire until she
was almost an adult.


About this time I had Eddie working out to try and get some of the athletic skills since he had 10 points in it. He fell off the treadmill, and went to the great beyond. I blinked and missed it and no one in the house mourned him. Apparently his refusal to DIE both the first and second time had worn his family out. They were sick of his ugly mug. I moved his urn out to the backyard with his wives and son-in-law.

By this time I was down to Analia, Angela and Anita. Neither girl had a boyfriend because I had been too busy trying to get the old people their lifetime wants. They had made a few friends while working their part time jobs while they were in high school. Angela was a receptionist at the Spa like her mother, Analia, was and Anita worked in the bookstore. Both girls were on the honor roll and had a fair number of opportunities while growing up. Anita I was constantly having to pull out of her tree house. When she grew up it went into
inventory because of how much space it takes up. Now the only boys they knew were still boys, both girls got jobs in their chosen fields and looked around at work. I tried having them find boyfriends, but they kept finding guys who had traits we already had had OR had Fiancees.

This is when Party Animal Analia says she's getting old and she wants grandbabies before she dies. She calls up all the men she knows and throws a party for her daughters to help them find spouses. She had rolled a desire for Anita to get married, but not Angela. I was giving both girls a fair shot at being heir, though I was leaning towards Anita because she has the family "hair". Aimee, my founder, had black hair with purple streaks that she passed to Analia, and Anita had inherited that hair as well. I was however only wanting one of the girls to make babies so it was whoever found a better mate would get to be heir. The party went well with the girls both having attraction with a present male with desirable traits....but both of those males had girlfriends or better.

It was time to get creative. We ordered pizza, we called the repair man. The repair man bored Analia to tears and made her pass out (Another weird thing where a non-sleepy, well rested sim passed out without a reason I could determine) Finally I found a male that looked interesting, Brent Lord. He worked with Angela and she rolled a desire to be friends with him. She chatted him up a few nights and finally got him friendly enough to come over and visit.

She chatted him up, no sparks, and then Anita chatted him up, boom sparks like crazy. They were nuts about each other. Analia put on her game face and started working on hitting on Brent. She wooed she flirted, her no sense of humor boring self was working it and he was totally buying it and all over her...annnnnnd then...the ghosts show up.

Brandy and Eddie decide decide to interrupt the two because they both wanna play with the only laptop in the house. The laptop that is ONLY out because Angela is a journalist and needs it for writing. They promptly decide to amuse themselves at poor Brent's expense. Now poor Brent...he's a coward.

So he kept passing out. Anita's trying to lock lips and her ghostly family members are so blocking her. (Are we noticing a theme in this family yet? I Swear it's happening on it's own). Luckily Anita heard the stories of her mother's woe and wouldn't let Brent leave without her kiss...

And then she tried for baby with him 3 times. She was working up to getting him to dump his girlfriend but I wanted an heir and I figured a pregnant Anita would have better luck with him. (Though honestly these two are so cute together I doubt that was required). Brent stayed over and headed off to work in the morning.

Both girls were on their weekend and I didn't want to slow down their careers for their husband searching. Anita invites Brent over the next day, asks him to dump his girlfriend Rita, he does. She then works up the nerve and asks him to marry her, in the bathroom, and they immediately wed in the bathroom and Brent
joins the Shocklee household. He has 3 children of his own and I'm considering moving them in because of their traits but I'll decide that later.

Brent Shocklee (Formerly Brent Lord)
Traits: Clumsy, Coward, Flirty, Grumpy, Perfectionist
LTW:  Be Leader of the Free World.

I had been getting a little bit bored until Anita met him, and I suspect his addition to the house will lead to lots
of fun.

That was where I left off. A recap of the points earned by deceased family members below.

Eddie Shocklee (Burger) (Founder's husband)
Traits (4 pts)- Childish, Clumsy, Insane, Natural Cook, Neurotic
LTW (1 pt) - Gold Digger
Skills: Painting (3 pts) - Brush Master, Proficient Painter, Master Painter
Resurrect a Ghost (1 pt)
Playable Ghost (1 pt)

Brandy Shocklee (Braun)
No Points Due to lack of an acheived LTW.

Jean Shocklee (Gen 2 Hubby, Former Babysitter of Gen 2)
Traits (4 pts)- Absent-minded, Charismatic, Daredevil, Family-Oriented, Flirty
LTW (1pt) - Super Popular (20 friends)
Skills - Charismatic (2 pts) - Celebrity, Superfriendly

Also I realized that Aimee actually contributed the hidden trait <salute> to her children by suffering up to the level 5 military track as all her descendants can salute which is an additional point. They also get 1 point for owning a venue as somewhere along the way I bought into the Bookstore.

Random Challenge Photo:

Non-playable Ghost Founder Aimee Shocklee gets attitude with her deceased but playable husband because he moved on and married another woman after her death.

Chapter Two: Kiss of Death!?

Shortly after Analia became a child her parents decided they really needed to move because their one room house just wasn't big enough for their growing family. (Mostly I didn't want to build) As I explained in the first chapter I used funds from a bug to get the money (considering it a loan from the bank) and
bought a bigger house for them. The new house was a two bedroom, two-story house with a garden pre-built, and a pond in the yard. It had a great structure to grow if I needed it.

Cozy Cottage: 8 Via Veronaville - Monte Vista

 

Aimee worked with her daughter helping her with her homework and tutoring her occasionally. For the most part Analia didn't get my attention and got to have a mostly free-will childhood.

 

My attention was caught up trying to get Aimee to achieve her LTW of being a chess grand master. This was harder than you would think because of Aimee's absentminded, loser, and unlucky traits. She lost a lot, she forgot what she was doing while playing and would walk away, and she just plain did not have luck getting people over.

I also had to keep her garden up because I was hoping to grow her a death flower so that when she died I would be able to keep her around. I was worried she wasn't going to achieve her LTW her first lifetime around. While all this went all, Analia and Eddie moved around mostly in the background. Eddie I used
for the garden, and painting not really trying to do anything with him since I assumed he was just there for the cash. He was old when he married in there was no way he would outlive his wife right?

Most nights Aimee would try to invite people over to play games with them until she won. Her husband started taking care of the garden so she could focus her energies on her chess. One night something funny happened and I'm still not sure how or why. Aimee had invited over someone to challenge and was chatting to them after she beat them. The next thing I know Aimee is passed out on the ground sleeping and she hadn't been tired enough for that to happen. I wake her up figuring it's just a weird glitch.

A few minutes later her opponent was talking to Analia who by this time is a teen, and Analia passes out and she was  NO where near sleepy. I don't know how this happened as I only have the base game and stuff packs installed. My best guess is the conversation with said Sim was so boring it literally bored them to sleep.

Finally Aimee was one challenge away from winning her grand master title. She picks up her phone and goes to call and invite someone over…only the option is greyed out.

I mouse over it and it tells me her next opponent is a member of the household!? Now I had let Eddie her hubby play chess occasionally. I really only used Eddie for the garden and going to work to make money for the family. He had a logic of 7 to Aimee's 10. I have no idea why on earth he would have been the top ranked chess guy, but apparently he was. Aimee challenged her husband beat him and finally achieved her LTW making everything she did count towards the challenge. I was happy! It was time to try and knock out other things to complete now that she could get involved in hobbies other than her lifetime want.

Meanwhile, Analia had been growing up....

And up...

Analia Shocklee
Traits: Childish, Couch Potato, Party Animal, Slob, Virtuoso
LTW: Swimming In Cash (Have $50,000)

When she aged to young adult, I looked around to figure out who was the best person to have her marry. I decided on her babysitter Jean, who had been looking after her most her life. She started calling him up and chatting him up all the time. She finally invites him over for a date. While she's on her date working her magic with her man, her mom tries to upgrade the television to unbreakable because it keeps breaking.

Her husband had recently been shocked by the television while trying to repair it had and been electrocuted to a new race while he was dirty. It apparently scared him white. When he bathed he was back
to normal.

Aimee loved her husband so she figured she'd make the television unbreakable and protect her family. She had a good handiness skill…nothing should go wrong …right?

Erm yeah, so at this point I should tell you that in the garden we had successfully gotten 3 death flowers. 1 was put into Analia's inventory to assure her lifespan as heir. The other two however were used by Aimee to turn in for an opportunity that required two perfect quality plants. Aimee didn't have her death flower anymore. I hadn't thought it would be needed as she had reached her lifetime want and I was okay with her going on to heaven from old age.

Yeah, I wasn't planning on her dying to an upgrade on her television, while her daughter was working up to asking her boyfriend out and getting her first kiss.

That however is exactly what happened. I grumbled. I glared. I hadn't saved so I exited game and restarted. It wasn't a huge set back. Now while I was loading I realized I was okay with this happening and was amused by it as my completion challenge family name is Shocklee. It seemed fitting.

I restarted, removed things from Aimee's inventory that were lost the first time she died and let things play out again. I didn't change any of the interactions and didn't consciously play any differently and again, Grim came for mom right as Analia worked for her first kiss. This time I forgot to ask her boyfriend to stay the night so he left right as Grim showed up due to the time.

Analia spent the next several days mourning the death of her mother and working on her relationship with Jean. She invites him over and they are hanging out in the kitchen working up to that big moment, her FIRST kiss. She puckers up…Dad sets down his plate of food he had just eaten, and DIES.

Yes you heard right BOTH parents die while this poor girl attempts to get some lip action. Needless to say this blocks Analia's attempts at securing herself a husband.

While she's mourning her dad she gets an invite to a date and I figure what the heck maybe my Sims universe is telling me to go with someone else. She goes on the date but I don't like the guy as much for her. She gets Jean Lee to come back over and they get hitched.

Meet Jean Shocklee (Formerly Jean Lee)
Traits: Absent-minded, Charismatic, Daredevil, Family-Oriented, Flirty
LTW: Super Popular (20 Friends)

Now because her parents died she got the opportunity to resurrect them. I took both parents to the science facility and resurrect them figuring I can get them rich, have Eddie see his wife Aimee and get his LTW and count everything he's done.

Except that I forgot they put something in to prevent you from doing exactly that. So I let Aimee go to the great beyond since I could already count her points and decide to focus on getting Eddie to his LTW being a Gold Digger.

He invites over his friend that has been trying to ask him on dates for forever, Brandy Braun, because she's rich AND old.

Meet Brandy Shocklee (Formerly Brandy Braun)
Traits: Friendly, Grumpy, Mooch, Natural Cook, Neat
LTW: 5 Star Chef

I figure she'd die quickly only she was actually only halfway through elderhood. She marries him moves in and I realize she has a somewhat achieveable LTW, top of the cooking career. She's actually fairly compatible with my little family.

Analia and her husband Jean have two daughters by this time, Angela and Anita.  Angela was born first and I decided to try for a boy, but got Anita instead.

 Brandy loved to help out autonomously with her step-grandchildren but was bad about feeding and changing their diapers while she held them, so I usually had to direct her to feed or diaper change them. She slowly EVER so slowly worked her way up to the top of her career, so it was a race to see if she dies first or get her LTW.

And I had to worry her husband would die BEFORE her and NOT get his LTW again, so I keep having him eat life fruit.

With the addition of the 2 babies plus Eddie and his new wife still being in the house I had to finally build and expand a house.  The house had a good base for building though so there was room to easily add a room and even a balcony on the second floor.

Analia is working to get to the top of the music career and to finish other random things since she did achieve her LTW of swimming in cash and Jean is plugging away at making his 20 friends before he dies. The family was already rich when we married Brandy in. I'm also working on Eddie's painting skill and trying to get those out of the way so that if he does get his LTW I can knock out some of the painting achievements. This family is turning out to be hilariously fun to play with.

I did have one minor bug I had to use testingCheats to fix. When Jean married Analia for some reason I didn't get the option to move him in and he didn't auto move in when they married. I had to add him to the house hold.  I got for Aimee during her lifetime.

Aimee Shocklee
Traits (5 pts) - Absentminded, Neurotic, Unlucky, Loser, Grumpy
LTW (1 pt) - Grand Master Chess
Skills (1pt ) – Gardening – Master Farmer
Logic (1pt) – Grand master Chess
Handiness (1pt) – Plumber
Total Points contributed by Aimee – 9 pts

It should also be noted...I never changed Aimee's traits. She may have been a negative Sims with no real redeeming qualities (though I do love playing neurotic Sims) but she definitely had a unique life!