New Blog

Ok so I'm getting antsy lol......I've started the new blog, but the entries will be slow at first. I'm playing through what I call a "developmental round" right now, so I will begin by telling each family's story. I didn't want to start with sims who had no skills and didn't know anyone in the hood. I hope that everyone who followed this blog will follow the new one....and hopefully this will be the LAST FREAKING TIME I have to start over!!!! LaQuest Beach can be found here. I hope you guys enjoy it!!! See ya over at the new blog!!!

LaQuest Beach

So here's my new labor of love, LaQuest Beach. It's on an island in the middle of the water. I have Sim State University attached to it but I also have a community college located in the city portion, LaQuest Beach Community College or LBCC. There is a bad area of town located on the left and the bottom portion serves as the suburbs. It has plenty of space for beach lots and I love this map!!!!!

News, Well kinda........

I think I know what happened to my hood and I wanted to share this with anyone who plays on a laptop. When I shut down my game, it's usually because I'm going to bed or about to leave or something. So I always shut my laptop lid once I shut down the sims. I think I put my laptop in sleep mode before the game had completely shut down. Usually when I see my desktop I figure it's done saving the information but apparently that is not the case. So the files didn't save completely which is why it's not as big as it should have been. I apparently did this more than once which is why my back up and the one that was on my laptop were different sizes....it was a long time coming. So now I make sure that the game has completely finished shutting down before I put it in sleep mode......I check my facebook or do something to give it time to do what it has to do...........this means boo for Crystal Bay as that ship has sailed but at least I know what caused it.......on a happier note, LaQuest Beach is coming along wonderfully and I think I've over done it but I don't care! I used a medium size terrain so I actually have a housing area and a downtown area on the map with no need to use the sub-hoods. I won't have the Count or Countess since I'm not using the downtown area, but I don't really play with the supernatural creatures anyway......I haven't given up on trying to at least salvage the character files......if I can get them I will just add my Crystal Bay folks to LaQuest Beach........

Decisions

I don't think I'm going to be able to save my Crystal Bay characters.......I was near tears last night when I couldn't get them to pull up correctly in SimPE.......Cassie and Carla and Angelo were all about to start their college careers.......and Tina had finally had the baby she wanted even though Sam wasn't too happy about it......I started building a new hood called LaQuest Beach, but I really want to know what cause my hood file for Crystal Bay to become corrupt before I get attached to a new group of characters........I don't know if I'm going to blog about LaQuest Beach seeing as how it seems as soon as I get started good, disaster strikes! I'm going to do some more research but it seems that Crystal Bay is pretty much defunct. I think I'm going to get LaQuest Beach set up to my liking and create some sims and maybe just play for a while before blogging about it......but I will still be reading your blogs and commenting and I still want to do SimSational Quarterly if you guys are still interested. I'm sure I'll start blogging again because I love telling the stories.....but I need a break to start again and work out whatever caused Crystal Bay to bomb before I begin a new blog......I'm not going anywhere, I'll still be reading and commenting and I will be back!!!!! I'm already thinking of ideas for the next issue of SimSational Quarterly and I will still make posts to this blog with info on that and with info on LaQuest Beach when I begin blogging about it........thanks to all of you who took the time to read about Crystal Bay and I hope you will want to read about LaQuest Beach too......

Jen

Sooooooo......

My neighborhood file is corrupted. That's why the game doesn't recognize it and neither does SimPe. The size had been cut down to only 96 bytes which is nothing at all! I have no idea how this happened as I haven't installed any new cc or done anything differently. So where do I go from here? Since I can't access the neighborhood in SimPE, I can't extract my characters and just recreate Crystal Bay. I get attached to my sims and their personalities and I just don't think I could remake them either. It wouldn't truly be them.....so what do I do? Create another hood? I don't know if I even want to do that......this is the second hood I've lost!!!! And this time it was on a new laptop! I fear I'm cursed!!!! I still have the urge to sim, but I don't know how to proceed. Make a new hood? Play with a maxis hood? I just don't know.......any advice?

SimSational Quarterly - Issue 1

Sooooooooo, it's finally here! I just want to thank everyone who sent in stuff for this issue! I had a lot of fun putting it together and I hope it meets your expectations! I would love to continue doing this if people want to do it again......if I can't get my freaking hood up and running I may not have anything to contribute, but I really would love to this again. So let me know what you guys think!!!! And thanks once again!!! Without further ado, I give you, SimSational Quarterly:

HELP!!!

I don't know why I keep having such bad freaking luck! For some reason, my neighborhood will not load.....I don't know what's wrong, maybe someone can help me. I played last night, got up this morning and went into the game and Crystal Bay just won't load. It doesn't even appear in the neighborhood chooser.......When I look in the game files it's there. But even SimPE won't load it up. I don't know what could have happened.....even my back-up won't play......if any of you have any ideas on how I can save my hood please tell me! I can't start over again......I just can't! I'm so connected to my sims! I was going to play my uni for the first time today and now I can't! I hope this is something I can fix somehow.......

Spring 2025 Birthdays

Leary
Sam and Tina Leary are 31

Early one spring morning, Tina Leary goes into labor and Sam Leary makes the bed. "Oh for sims sake Sam, I'm having the baby! Forget about the damn bed!"

Sam seems to awake from his sleepy daze and realizes that Tina is in fact giving birth before his eyes. "I don't know what I'm suppose to do.....I think I'm having a heart attack! There's a pain in chest!" Sam yells. "You're in pain? Why you lousy son of a......."

And so little Celeste Leary was born into a world of tension and terrible cursing. She has the same pale skin and red hair as both her parents. She also got her dad's brown eyes. Good luck little one, I think you're going to need it!

Frader

Nickoli is 28, Amanda is 26, Layla and Lauren are 1

The Frader twins have grown into two of the cutest toddlers I've ever seen! They are in some serious competition with Taylor Peterson for cutest toddler in Crystal Bay. Nickoli here is holding little Layla Frader. He's going to be in for some trouble when these cuties are teens!

Amanda is holding Lauren Frader. They both are adorable with their mother's freckled skin! You just want to pinch their little cheeks, right?

Here's a solo shot of Layla testing out the tastiness of her her xylophone stick. She's just too cute!

Solo of Lauren Frader crawling around their three bedroom loft apartment. I can't really tell who they look like. The skins makes me automatically think of Amanda but maybe Nick will show up more when they're kids.

So how cute is this really? I mean my goodness, you just want to jump into the game and scoop them up! Look out for more cuteness from the Frader household, they both have wants for another baby.......hopefully this time it will be a boy so we can save the Frader name!

Happy Birthday Celeste, Layla, and Lauren!!!


*I am REALLY hoping for a boy this time! I want to perserve the Frader name for at least one more generation. But I guess one of the twins could be so head strong she makes her husband take her last name.....hmmmmm....we'll have to see how they develop as they get older......Too Cute!!!!

Before She Leaves

Round 3 - Spring 2025

Tyson and Ann Marie are 37, Cassie is 18, TJ is 12

Mini-Update

The Carmichaels can feel the time winding down. Cassie will be heading off to college the fall of this year and they will all miss her. So they have decided to spend as much time together as a family as they can before the big day arrives. No one is more excited than Cassie about her impending freedom. She can't wait to get out of her parent's house!

So the head down to Crystal Bay Island to enjoy a day at the CBI Center. Ann Marie can't believe her baby girl is going to college. She just doesn't know what to do with herself! She's actually been thinking of maybe having another baby. She discussed it with Tyson and from the way he freaked out, he doesn't share her desire for another child. TJ has been on cloud nine every since the winter ball. He's never really thought much about girls, but Arlena McGaw is a pretty cute girl......

And she seems to be stalking him! Arlena is everywhere now it seems. But TJ doesn't mind. He's still getting into the hang of this whole girl thing. No one really paid him much attention before now and now he has too much of it! He hasn't talked much to Jocelyn much lately and he feels bad. She told him she thought he would for get about her when he went to junior high and he promised he wouldn't.......but he's just been so busy.........

Tyson knows Ann Marie is pretty ticked because he doesn't share her crazy notion to just pop out another baby. They barely made it through with Cassie and now TJ was also a teen! Besides, they were almost 40 years old! It doesn't make since to just start over now.......

You would think that Cassie had had enough of hopping into hottubs with guys after the whole Payton scandal, but this time her parents are near so she knows to behave herself. She really likes Donte, but at the same time she's still very excited about going to school. He's just too young for her. She let him know that she only wants to be friends and encourages him to date other people. No need pining away for her, she's going after the big fish now!!!

And so the Carmichaels sit down for one of the last meals they will have together as a family before Cassie goes off to college to pursue her education.......well, her education and lots of cute boys!!!!

*I love Laura's skeleton stretching figures! It's so much more realistic and all of my teens don't have to be the same height when they are no where near the same ages! So big thanks to Laura!

*Cassie and a few others will be my first residents to go to Crystal Bay University and I can't wait!!! I'm probably much more excited about it than they are!!!

This is just a really random pic that I caught as the Carmichaels were eating. Yes, this is a grown man having dinner with a teenager and having a conversation about getting married! She looks just as grossed out as I felt when I saw this! Cradle robber!!!!

I'm Still Alive!!!!

So it's SUCH a bad idea to wait until the last minute to write a research paper! Ugh, anywho I'm done with it! Finally! So after I complete my take home test for my OTHER class, I'm going to play catch up with all the great blogs I've been missing out on because I've been reading about a cult named Isis lol.....then I will try to post some new stuff from Crystal Bay.....

Let me say I am so happy with the participation I got for the SimSational Monthly issue! I hope to also get that put together and out either this weekend or first thing next week! Thank you guys for taking the time out to create ads and business articles. The ones I recieved are excellent and I think this is going to come together very nicely indeed! I still have to come up with a cover for it but that shouldn't take much time at all. Thank you guys again for your participation and if you all are up for it I would love to do this again. This issue will cover October, November, and December since it's now quarterly and not monthly. So the next issue would be January, February, and March.......so if you're interested let me know and let me know of any ideas you might have for the next issue......you guys rock!!!!! :)

Winter Ball 2024

Round 3 - Winter 2024
Tina Leary is 31, Cassie Carmichael, Carla Harris, Angelo DeLorne, Halinka Ivanov, and Payton Sneiff are 18, Kuo Makasi is 17, Donte Conaway is 15, TJ Carmichael and Arlena Taylor are 12, and Jocelyn Arnold and Brittney Parker are 8.

Kuo has been working on his vocal skills. He actually hates music, performing it anyway, but he knows he has to do it to graduate so he sucks it up. He had no plans on going to college, but since Halinka is going, he has every intention of following her as soon as he graduates. The Winter Ball is coming up and it's what on all these hormonal teenage minds!

Donte decides he would rather play his handheld than to play a musical instrument. TJ seems completely unaware that young Arlena has a small crush on him. TJ is pretty much unaware of anything that doesn't relate to school, learning, music, or college.

Jocelyn and Brittney aren't worried about the ball because they're too young to attend. "Who cares about a stupid dance? They're all like blockheads around here.......it's just a dance.....do you think we'll act like that when we get older?" Jocelyn asks. "No way," was Brittney's response.

TJ is trying to expand his horizons where his music is concerned. His first love is still classical music and he really loves playing his violin, but its kinda cool to rock out too.....and he's not really interested in girls right now.....but chicks totally dig it!

Angelo is so excited about the upcoming ball. Carla has been pretty down lately. Word has gotten around Crystal Bay about Carla's mom and Halinka's dad having an affair. Halinka has been pretty good natured about it, but the tension can be felt. Angelo can't wait until they start at Crystal Bay University and leave all this drama behind. It's tough reassuring Carla that everything will be alright when her mother seems to have no conscience at all!

Payton asked Cassie if she would like to attend the ball with him. Her answer was to give him a noogie! The nerve of him! She can't believe he is even talking to her after what happened. It's too bad that Payton is also going to Crystal Bay University........she still won't be rid of him!

Arlena decided to let TJ know she was interested in him by tickling him......this did not go over well at all.....the boy is absolutely clueless about how cute he is! Arlena is going to have to try another approach to win over this one!

Halinka is counting down the days until she's free. The whole town knows about her cheat of a dad. She feels pretty bad for her mom.......hopefully she'll leave him soon. There's no reason for them to stay together once she's gone to college. But she knows her mom won't leave him. She never does.....Halinka is considering majoring in psychology.....maybe she can figure out what's wrong with her screwed up family........

Donte figured it was time to step up to the plate where Cassie is concerned. He knows that this is her last year at CBA and wants her to know he likes her before she runs off to college. Yea, there's a 3 year difference there......but who cares?

Cassie has a pretty good idea that Donte has a crush on her. She thinks he's really cute and wishes he were older. It would be insane to start up something with him when she was about to head off to college........there is going to be lots of college MEN there........who knew who she would end up with by the time Donte started college.....but he was really cute......
The night of the winter ball rolled around and all the kids ages 12 and up piled into the gym. There wasn't much decorating done, but there was music. Soon they were all heavily involved in the smustle.........

TJ finally opened up his eyes and realized that Arlena had a thing for him. His main focus is still on school and music, but he thinks he can never have too many friends. Arlena plans on changing his point of view on that.....all she needs is a little time......

Angelo and Carla are all hugged up kissing each other's lips off......this is no surprise to anyone and the reality of it is that the students of Crystal Bay Academy are tired of their constant public displays of affection......they will not be missed at next year's ball!

Donte looks on as Carla and Angelo dance and decide it's time to make his move on Cassie. The worst she can do is turn him down in front of almost every other student at the school. That's not so bad is it?

"Ok, so you think I'm too young, I get that. And maybe you're right. Maybe you'll go off to college and forget all about me. Maybe you'll meet some guy the day you move in......all I know is that tonight, none of that matters. Tonight, it's just me and you and this moment. So would you care to dance Cassie Carmichael?"

Who in the world could turn down an offer like that? Cassie and Donte spent most of the night just like this........even when the music went from a slow to fast song.......Cassie may just change her mind about Mr. Donte Conaway...........

Kuo is going to really miss Halinka. He'll be starting CBU soon after her, but it will be a lonely year without her. He's been the one thing that's kept her sane throughout this whole drama with her dad and Carla's mom........it was going to suck when she left........no doubt about it............
And so the young love birds danced on into the night......or rather danced until 11:00 pm.......the dance couldn't last all night! Although some of them may have been happy if it had......

Carla doesn't know what she would do without Angelo.......he really is a wonderful guy.....and to think, she almost didn't give him the time of day.......she just hopes he still feels the same way about her once they go off to college.......they'll be alot of girls there who don't have so much drama in their lives...........

Donte ended the night with one last stroke of Cassie's cheek and one last plea for her heart......he could only hope that she would understand just how serious he was about her.......well, at least as serious as any 15 year old boy could be about anyone!!!!


*I decided to do a Winter Ball instead of a prom, that way more than just the juniors and seniors could attend.

*Cassie gave Payton about 6 noogies during my time playing the school. Donte may be a little out of luck though. Despite her constant nooging, Cassie still wants to be friends with Payton and who knows where that will lead. They will both be at CBU together so we'll see what happens.

*There hasn't been as wide spread a rumor going around about Carla's mom and Halinka's dad as I may as lead you to believe......oh people are talking, but it hasn't spread too far.......yet.........it hasn't gotten back to poor Anya yet but I'm sure she suspects something is going on......I can't wait to play their house!

*You may be wondering why Michael Leary wasn't in this update......well, apparently if he doesn't go to the school when Tina does, then he can't teleport in when school starts like the other students......who knew?!

*First post for Crystal Bay University will be in Fall of 2025!!!

Maybe I'm Selfish

Round 3 - Winter 2024
Sam and Tina are 31, Michael is 12
Narrated by Sam Leary

Well Tina is pretty far along in her pregnancy. It's not that I'm unhappy with her being pregnant. I know this is something she has wanted for a while now. It's just that, I was pretty happy with how our lives were going. I love my son and I would have been happy if it had just stayed the three of us. Not that I'm unhappy now, it's just the farm is actually turning a profit now and I don't want to even think about the added pressures of having a baby in the house.....

Mike has grown up so much! He's in junior high now and before I can blink my eyes I know he'll be an adult. I don't know if he wants to go to college or if he plans to just help me run the farm. Tina is pretty serious about him going, but it would be ok with me if he didn't go. I never went and I'm doing just fine.......
Tina is still up moving all around and cleaning up. She's such a dedicated mother. I know she'll do all she can to take care of the new baby. I mean I'm going to help of course. As much as I can anyway. She's working at the new school now so I'm going to have to hire someone else to be cashier for the store. I would have rather been able to keep it in the family. Now I'm going to have to pay wages to someone which takes money from the family.....

I really thought that Tina would be happy with Retro. After a few tough months of training him, he's gotten to be such a really great dog. I wouldn't mind having another dog. And I know Retro wouldn't mind having some company. And why shouldn't we have another dog? It's something I want.........

So I head down to the pet store and get another retriever. This one is a girl and I decided to name her Orea. She reminds me of an oreo cookie but oreo isn't really a girl's name! She's beautiful and I know Retro will be glad for the company.......Tina is probably going to freak out though........

I get Mike on my side first. He falls in love with Orea as soon as he sees her. I only hoped that Tina would fall in love with her too.......yea it's another mouth to feed, but really, shouldn't Retro be happy too?

I didn't want Retro to feel he had been replaced so I made sure to spend some quality time with him after we got Orea. Tina was pissed when she came home and saw the dog there. She yelled about how we were about to have a baby and we hadn't even bought the crib or changing table or anything. I told her we had the money for all that, it's not like the dog was 1000 simoleans or something............
I hired Christy Toyanga as our new cashier. She was dressed pretty questionably for an interview but she promised that she would dress better when she came for work. She was a young, intelligent, charismatic woman and I know she's going to be a great asset to the market.....

Tina wasn't really speaking to me by that time so it was pretty quiet around the house. I mean I completely understand why she was mad. I didn't really talk to her about getting a new dog.......but I know.....maybe it's a little childish but I wanted something. She gets another baby, something that I didn't really want right now, so why shouldn't I get something too? Oh, the things we do for love........

I like to watch Michael work in the garden sometimes........he's such a hard worker and is so dedicated. Is it fair for me to expect him to be happy living on a farm for the rest of his life? Shouldn't I want what's best for him? If he goes to college, he could get a really great job and move into a nice house and have nice things. I'm such a selfish bastard sometimes. Because I really and truly want him to stay here with me and Tina.........

I had an extremely picky customer come in. I usually hate dealing with them, but I was determined for this guy to walk out of here with some fresh produce. He kept asking questions about whether it was actually freshly grown. I wanted to say, "Take a look out of the window wierdo, see the farm?" What I said though was, "Yes, sir, picked them all myself right out of my garden.

I'm glad I wasn't rude to him because he turned out to be an undercover reporter! He gave my business a good review and even gave me the Best of the Best award! It was in that moment that I knew that I was destined to go places with this business........
Even though I'm not as excited as I should be about the new baby, Michael is over-joyed at the knowledge that he's going to be a big brother.......hey, I could use some more strong hands to work on the farm.....maybe we'll have another boy.......

Orea and Retro are getting along like old friends now. It's so wonderful to see. With me being busy with the farm and Michael and Tina being at school all day, Retro was left to play by himself all day. Now he has Orea to play with!

A man couldn't ask for a better son than my Michael. And I'm sure the new baby will be just as wonderful as he is. I guess I am a little selfish. But I think I've earned the right to be. No one thought I would make it. There were times when it even felt like Tina didn't think we could pull through. But I did it. And no one can deny that..........


*Sam is just awful! All of his wants surround the farm. And then he got the want for a new pet! He has a baby on the way, but you wouldn't know it by looking at his wants! Tina has wants for Michael to get scholarships and got to college. Sam doesn't have any of those! He really is quite a selfish man! Hopefully his attitude will change once the baby comes.......Retro and Orea really are cute together though!!!!

*Please excuse any typos. I'm at work trying to crank these out while I can. My time at home is being spent writing a research paper on the cult Isis and it's effects on Christianity that is due on Monday! So I gotta get these out when I can!!! Ugh, I hate grad school......getting in the way of my simming!!!!