Aaaaargh!
Sometimes I amaze myself with my own stupidity. I accidentally killed my prosperity neighborhood, AGAIN (I had a few earlier attempts at challenges but they all died prematurely, sniff). I downloaded the new FT patch, but it wasn’t living up to my expectations. It actually caused a gypsy bug and increased my loading time so much that I decided to reinstall. Yes, I reinstalled FT but with no backup!!!! This is very, very, very STUPID! And what’s even worse is that this really isn’t the first time my laziness caused me to loose precious sims
Reinstalling any of your EP’s will kill all of your custom neighborhoods, your custom CAS sims and your entire downloads folder.
This all happened last night, while my boyfriend was enjoying himself with the European Soccer Championships. I had too amuse myself and decided to do some simming and then it all went wrong. Well thats Friday the 13th for you (p.s. I’m really having an unlucky streak, I also burned myself this afternoon while making grilled cheese sandwiches) Anyway, now it’s the next day and I decided not to give up on sim challenges yet. This is actually another opportunity for me to do it even better than before. Yep, I’m somewhat of an optimist.

I’ve decided that if I would do another prosperity challenge I would try to start in the middle ages and end up somewhere in modern times. This gives me the following generation themes:
1. Medieval
2. Tudor
3. Rococo
4. Regency
5. Victorian
6. Modern

Pretty ambitious for someone who hasn’t even reached generation three with any of her challenges ever! But my mind is made up, I will continue with Aurora Valley. Same, same but different!

For the medieval themed Aurora Valley these are my downloads so far:

- N99 Forum’s Ridgton – I love this Neighborhood and I’ll use it again for my next Aurora Valley

- Phaenoh’s wagon rut roads – don’t these look awesome! Can’t wait to see these ingame

- Christianlov’s clothingrack – I will need this to get everyone an appropriate medieval styled look

My next objective is to make sure the townies will get a decent medieval name. I know there’s a MTS2 hack that already has medieval names, but I want to make my own! I’ll let you know when it’s ready! If anyone else is interested in making their own custom townie names, here’s the tutorial (see post#16).

Another update on the Newman family. Heather is a busy career girl and one of the few sims in my neighborhood that actually gets promotions And of course she’s also busy with spreading her love around except to her little boy Austin.

I hope you enjoy the update!

The Newman Family – Love is blind

Nanny’s can be wonderful cooks but sometimes they really make a mess of it all.

Lucky for Austin, he learned the emergency number at school and he was able to warn Aurora Vallley’s fire prevention unit in time.

Both the nanny and Austin were relieved the fire was put out in time.

When Heather came home, she had another promotion in the pocket. Of course this needed to be celebrated! Heather decided to call her boy Komei so they could both enjoy dinner together and maybe something more…

But Aurora Valley still is a small town. Even though Heather had been able to keep her relation with Komei quiet, Eric did find out that Heather got promoted. He decided to make a visit to surprise Heather. How fortunate that Eric kept his eyes conveniently closed in thought just as Komei left the Heather’s place.

Since nobodies feelings got hurt, Heather was very happy that Eric came by on his own accord!

While Heather was indulging in the attention she received from her male admirers, poor little Austen had his birthday all by himself. Heather did buy him a birthday cake, but that hardly makes up for the fact that she wasn’t there when he grew up.

Austin grew up into a handsome and sweet boy. He got to pick his own present and that was a cute little puppy named Noodle!

The Walker family returns! Now bigger and better since Yasmin Jones, the runaway rock star, has joined the family. This is my chance to try out the big church I made for community lot weddings! No shocking or funny stuff this time, but just a sweet and romantic wedding.

I hope you enjoy the yucky sweetness of this family and of course don’t miss the wedding pics!

The Walker family – Let them eat cake!

Yasmin was quickly making herself at home in the Walker family home. Both she and Jack loved to cook in their big cottage style kitchen.

The kids loved the kitchen as well. Most of all when there would be a big birthday cake!

Emma grew into a lovely young lady. She was finally getting used to living in the country and decided to grow up into a simple and sporty outfit.

Jack loved his girls and he always felt there was room for more children in his family. But he also was an old fashioned romantic kind of guy, so he decided this was the moment to propose to Yasmin.

Yasmin was thrilled when Jack proposed to her. She had always dreamed of having a big family and she loved Jack and the girls with all her heart. Wanting children of their own, they decided it would be a good thing to get married as soon as possible.

Jack and Yasmin were the first couple to get married in Aurora Valley’s Harmony church, where all religions are welcome.

Yasmin, had become a Buddhist a few years back so she would have the strength to stay away from the temptations of her rock star life. They had a nice little Buddhist ceremony and Yasmin wore a beautiful blue silk dress in Asian style with a matching hairdo.

The church was packed with family, friends and neighbors. Everyone thought the couple looked lovely and gave them a big applause when the ceremony ended.

Of course there was a big fat wedding cake…

“I’m so going to work out tomorrow, or I wont fit in my new outfit anymore after all this cake!”

Author’s Note: I’m really pleased with how the wedding turned out. There were plenty of guests and the camera just loved the young couple. But of course they all came home starving, peeing their pants and nearly passing out I had to work really hard to make sure Yasmin didn’t die, because she has a little surprise on the way!

Things are starting to get a bit crazy in this prosperity challenge. After the Jackson family I expected things to get somewhat dull again, but the Campbell’s decided they just wouldn’t stand for my favoritism. And I must say they succeeded. I really am getting a soft spot for my sim Tiffany Campbell by now, she turned out such a cutie!

I hope you enjoy my rants and raves about the Campbell family!

The Campbell Family – Trailer Park Boys

The Campbell kiddies grew up without a proper birthday party. They just didn’t have enough money to waste on something as decadent as 4 birthday cakes. So it’s no surprise the kids grew up as trailer trash!

No kidding! All the boys decided they wanted leather jackets as outerwear and Tiffany grew up into some very casual outerwear with some very obvious cleavage.

Oh no, who’s that! A police officer! What kind of trouble have these kids gotten themselves into? No problems at all. The reason why I couldn’t get them I birthday cake was because granny Martha needed the money to buy them I birthday gift and the officer has come to drop it off.

All the kids had a want for a pet and Martha decided they had endured so much that she would buy them a little kitten named Sushi. Tiffany immediately loved the little furball and even decided to bring it with her to work ( a drive through clerk!).

Tiffany’s outerwear might show a little cleavage but it’s nothing compared to the casual outfit she grew up in. According to Tiffany all the cool kids wear this now and why should she stop wearing something because she looks so good in it.

But Martha sure had her doubts. She had already seen her daughter Nancy, Tiffany’s mother, hop from one guy to another in search for real love but always ending up with something artificial. And now her little girl Tiffany was looking more like her mother every day.

Tiffany even started bringing home some guy who she said was just a “friend” , but Martha sure didn’t trust the guy. She felt he was looking at Tiffany in an inappropriate way and the guy was an adult for crying out loud! He was way too old for her granddaughter!

When she ran into him the next day she decided to tell him what she thought of his behavior. ” Now look, mister. I know your not going to like what I’m about to tell you, but frankly I don’t care. I do care about my granddaughter however and I really think it’s in her best interest if you would stop seeing her! She’s just a young girl and getting involved with an older man will only get her hurt!”

The man tried to respond nicely at first, but when Martha started about how inappropriate his behavior was he actually became angry. “Now listen miss Campbell, I really don’t like being called a pervert! I have no intention what so ever to get romantically involved with your granddaughter. She told me she never had a real father and just liked to hang out with me. Tiffany’s a good kid and I care for her, that’s all! But don’t be afraid you won’t see me around here again!” And then he just left.

After the incident, Tiffany, kind of retreated to herself. She knew her grandmother had a tough time raising her and her brothers and she really didn’t want to make things any harder for her. So she decided that she wouldn’t bring any more friends home and she became kind of lonely. After a day of hard work there was a fresh layer of snow and she decided to make a snowman.

After she finished the snowman she told him all her problems, which meant she was out there for some time. In the end she got tired and decided to go to bed. Just in time too, because her skin had already turned purplish blue from the cold.

Author’s note: I really had no influence on their outerwear. I thought it was hilarious all the boys grew up into leather jackets. So appropriate!
That guy was kind of creepy. He didn’t leave the house for three days after the gypsy set him up with Tiffany. After Martha had a massive fight with him, I decided she should ask him to leave He really didn’t have any interest in Tiffany by the way and neither did Tiffany have any interest in him. It was the strangest thing.

I know it’s not fair to my simmies to have favorites, but I just can’t help myself with this family. As boring as the West family is, I never have a dull moment with this one. They were absolutely hilarious at some moments.

I hope you enjoy the chaos and comedy of each and every member of the Jackson family!

P.S. d.d. 23-5-08: Aaargh, I just found out I mixed up Nelson and Malcolm! Malcolm is the oldest of the two and Nelson is the nerdy one. I changed it in my story and comments to make it all work out again

The Jackson family – Legally Blond

Eric has been worrying a lot lately. He worries about his kids not doing their homework, but instead smustling their lives away. He worries about the lack of promotions in his career. And he worries about his love live. He desperately wanted to get married again, to find someone he could spend the rest of his live with.

He noticed his young and attractive new neighbor miss Newman a couple of times now. She seemed to be interested and had some lively conversations with Eric, but when he finally had the courage to ask her what she likes in a man he knew she told him she liked blonds. And Eric was a lot of things but definitely not blond.

But Eric was tired of waiting for miss Right and would definitely settle for miss Right Now. One day, right after work, he made a trip to Greenport City and didn’t come home until all the kids were already asleep.

The next morning he had some explaining to do. Especially little Shanice wanted to know everything about her daddy’s new cut and dye.

Even though his kids made fun of him behind his back, it worked like a charm with Heather. She just couldn’t keep her eyes of his golden locks.

But Eric wasn’t the only member of the Jackson family who acted like it was spring in stead of winter. On the coldest day of the year, things started to get pretty heated. The kids had the day off school because of the snow fall earlier that morning. Shanice immediately amused herself by making snow angels.

Ivy Copur came over to “chill” with the Jackson kids. Even though she’s Rochelle’s best friend, she couldn’t help but flirt with her older brother Malcolm.

This didn’t go well with Nelson. He thought it was the rudest thing. She should be having a good time with his sister Rochelle and now she was spending all her time walking after Nelson like some lovesick puppy.

Malcolm tried to calm his brother down. He thought that Nelson might just be a little bit jealous because he didn’t have any luck with the girls yet. Rochelle knew a girl in school that seemed to have her eye on Nelson, but has been to shy to tell him. Luckily, Nelson responded pretty well to her confession.

Malcolm was really happy about his little brother finally having a girlfriend. He got a bit carried away…

…And she definitely did not appreciate his rough ways.

Only time will tell if Malcolm and Nelson will get along with the love interest of the other. But looking at the snowman they made in the yard, things will probably get very interesting.

To be continued…

Author’s Note: I really love playing this family. They do the funniest things. They really hate each others girlfriends and start fighting with them autonomously. The girls are a pretty good match though the both have 2 thunderbolts.

I haven’t posted a new update of the prosperity neighborhood last week because I was on vacation. I had a wonderful city trip to London with my boyfriend, but now I’m back! The next update will have to wait until the weekend but I did play around with some new sims and some nice custom content. There totally unrelated to Aurora Valley but I thought they are great space fillers

Meet nobleman and dark magician Lord Mandrake Vortigern…

…I think he turned out nicely…

…just like his great grandson Lord Theron Vortigern…

…He’s quite the philosopher…

The West family makes it through another round! Unfortunately it’s one of the more boring families. Even though I’ve installed ACR and Jennifer is a romance sim, things remain pretty tame for this family. Maybe I shouldn’t have made family her secondary aspiration

Without me ranting any further about the lack of drama in this family, I hope you enjoy the next season in the life of the good mayor Michael West, his loving wife Jennifer and their darling daughter Maya!

The West Family – Baby hit me one more time!

Things were moving along pretty smoothly for the West family. Their beautiful baby girl grew up into a adorable toddler. She hardly ever cried, always amused herself with her toys and was potty trained in no time at all.

The roles in the West family were pretty traditional. Michael refused to get his hands dirty with changing the diapers. He occasionally brought little Maya a bottle, but the rest was up to Jennifer. The poor woman hardly had any time to get clothed decently.

Michael was far to busy to get himself involved with such things. He much rather spend his time smooching with his colleagues, like Benjamin Long, to make sure he was still in the rat race. One of their favorite topics was where you could buy the best business suits.

So once they were alone at night, Jennifer used all her charms to get Michaels attention. “Oh sweety, I missed you so much, kiss, kiss, kiss…” Little Maya was taking up all her time, so she really never had the opportunity to get romance from any other than Michael.

Desperate as she was for Michaels attention she wasn’t always very careful. And before she knew it, morning sickness was raising it’s ugly head again.

She tried to bring the news carefully to Michael, but he nearly choked on his spaghetti. They were finally bringing in some money, but a new baby would again be a burden on their finances. “Well it’s not like I planned this Michael, but it still is our baby!”

The nanny felt the tension was increasing between Michael and Jennifer. So when Maya’s next birthday was coming up she decided to have a little chat with Michael. “Mr Mayor, I took the liberty of arranging a birthday cake for the little Maya’s birthday. Won’t you come and see?” After she lured Michael into the kitchen she decided to make her move. “Your looking very handsome today, have you been to the hairdresser recently?”

Michael was experienced enough to realize what the nanny was up to so he quickly changed the subject. “Oh the cake looks wonderful, let’s call for Jennifer and Maya!”

Jennifer took Maya to the birthday cake and together they blew out the candles. Of course she grew into a beautiful little girl.

She turned out to be very outgoing and playful. She would make a very good romance sim, but fate (aka the dice) will determine that eventually.

To be continued…

Author’s Note: I expected that ACR would make this household a bit more interesting. Aside from the cheeky nanny (yes, she really does think Michael is hot!), ACR only made Michael and Jennifer interact with each other. The new pregnancy was totally their own decision.

I’m not keeping a score card because I like to add my own creativity to a challenge. But I do like to keep some kind of track record, because I’m just a wee bit chaotic and I need something to keep my brains going in a straight line

Round 1 – Autumn is over and Round 2 – Winter has arrived. But before I start with the summarizing stuff, here are some nice scenic winter pics of Aurora Valley covered in snow!

And another lovely pic of all the homes in Aurora Valley. I really heart seasons, the snow effects are awesome!

And now without further delay on with the facts and figures of Round 1!

Aurora Valley Population

# Sims born: 1

• Maya West (parents: Michael and Jennifer West)

# Sims died: 0

# Townies moved in: 0

Total Population Aurora Valley after Round 1- Autumn: 21

Aurora Valley Trivia

Current mayor: Michael West (after all 4 seasons a new mayor will be elected!)

# Children saved from the social worker: 4

# Families visited by the repo man: 3

# Sims visited by the shrink: 1

# Sims visited by a social bunny: 0

# Sims moved in/out: 1

• Yasmin Jones moved in with the Walker family

The last family of this round has arrived! I kind of expected this to be the most boring family. But because I installed ACR during the playtime of this family, things did turn out to be a little more exciting than I thought.

I hope you enjoy the dilemma’s in the life of ambitious single mother Heather Newman and her little boy Austin!

The Newman family

Heather had moved to Aurora Valley to live her life to the fullest. She’s an ambitious young woman and was very excited about working in the entertainment business. Because there was no work for her in the neighborhood, she bought a little pink VW beetle to drive to work every day.

Heather really likes her job, but what she really wants is to start an art gallery. So until she has enough money, she spends most of her free time behind the pottery wheel so she can improve her skills.

The little free time she has left Heather uses for romantic activities. She regularly calls the match maker to see if there is someone special out there.

Unfortunately this doesn’t always lead to a good match. Her very first date ever in Aurora Valley actually turned out horrible. The match maker set her up with the Sim State Uni football coach, and he was the rudest guy Heather had ever met.

Still Heather was having a great time in Aurora Valley. Her mood was always up and that was noticed by her employer. Within no time at all Heather got her first promotion!

Heather had recently made her first friend in Aurora Valley, Komei Tellerman. To celebrate her promotion she decided to invite him for dinner.

Heather made a nice spaghetti dinner with a little wine, and well maybe a lot of wine. And in the end things kind of got out of control

While Heather was making the most of her life, there was hardly any time left for little Austin. The poor boy would cry his lungs out at night but his mother was either busy in the shed working behind the pottery wheel or busy “entertaining” Komei.

He grew up into a handsome little boy, but no thanks to his mother.

Austin grew up strong and healthy thanks to the love and attention his nanny gave him. He spent more time with her than his own mother.

“Nanny Despret, why is my mother always at work?” “Well she has to earn money to pay me, little man!” Austin wasn’t sure what to think of this. He liked his nanny very much, but he loved his mother and desperately wanted to spend more time with her.

To be continued…

Author’s note: ACR was certainly giving this story an interesting twist. The relationship with Komei was entirely Heather’s initiative. It was so funny to see a sim do that while I’m used to controlling my sim’s love life entirely. I will definitely be giving Komei a make over though, because I think he’s …, well… esthetically challenged

Yep, It’s really becoming a little community now. The first two community lots have been added to Aurora Valley: a grocery store and a church. After playing the Walker family, I thought I heard some wedding bells so a church would be a nice addition to the neighborhood. I also figured that a grocery store would be the most logical other community lot for a small but growing neighborhood.

The Church

The church has a little graveyard in the back as well as a lovely garden for an outdoor wedding. Inside the church there’s plenty of room for an elaborate ceremony and a back room for some big time partying or a farewell ceremony for a loved one.

The Grocery Store

The grocery store is simple but has all the necessary goods for making a good meal. The grocery story isn’t a family business but run by the Aurora Valley Community Council and all proceedings will be used for the further development of community lots in Aurora Valley.

I love the bunnies on the apple packaging