Fortune and Glory

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Helen, Jeff, Michael and Michelle Reid

Narrated by Michael

A few years ago, my sister and I went to the pet store and she completely fell in love with a dog they had there and had to buy her. So she did and that’s how we ended up with Alia.

I have to say, Alia is a pretty dog and is very smart. But she was very cautious of us the first few months we had her. She seemed to bark and growl at pretty much everything, including us. But we all got her broken out of that now.

Mom and dad told Michelle that since she wanted Alia so badly, she’d have to take care of her herself but I know dad helped out a little here and there. I have too.

Alia got into everything. She’d dig up the lawn in the afternoon…

And then would hop into Michelle’s bed in the evening. She'd even pee in Michelle's room.

Michelle’s got her pretty well trained now and even taught her a few commands.

And Alia loves Michelle to death. I’d see her waiting in the bay window for us to get off the school bus every day.

Then we’d see her racing out right over to Michelle, completely ignoring me.

That was fine with me, though. I had other things to keep me occupied, like my girlfriend Celeste.

Michelle gets annoyed when Celeste comes over because we’re usually all over each other and she feels left out. She doesn’t have a boyfriend and I don't think she's even been kissed yet.

She feels even more jealous when Celeste leaves little gifts for me on our doorstep after our dates. Celeste likes leaving huge vases of roses and they’re kind of hard to hide from Michelle.

There is a guy at school that Michelle constantly swoons over but I’m not too sure about him. She got up the nerve to invite him over to our house one weekend and she nearly died when he accepted. She spent all morning fixing her hair, making sure she didn't have bad breath and whatever else she does up in her room.

And she was smiling ear to ear when he showed up.

I never really talked to him at school but having him over made me realize how much of a creep he is. It started out alright when they were just hanging out, although he mostly talked about himself and how he wants to travel the world when he becomes a rock star. He talked so much that I was surprised Michelle was able to get a word in at all.

But then he started getting really inappropriate and telling Michelle way too much about himself.

But she wasn’t fazed by it at all. She’s all in love with him… or whatever.

I really don’t know what she sees. He has absolutely nothing interesting to say and that’s probably why he always brags about things he’s done or things he plans to do.

And he eats like a pig. I hope it’s the last we see of this guy but it probably won’t be.

My older brother Paul went off to college a couple years ago and he surprised us with a visit right before winter break ended.

It was great to see him again since he didn’t come home at all during the first year he was there.

There were hugs all around from me, Michelle and mom, but dad didn’t greet him as warmly.

I overheard mom and dad talking about everything Paul’s been up to at college and knowing Paul, I can only imagine.

We all sat down to catch up but dad started right in on him. Dad knows a few of the professors at UCC and he didn’t like hearing that Paul has never gone to any of his classes but somehow still manages to get all his assignments and term papers turned in on time.

And then he starts ranting about how Paul nearly flunked out of high school and he had to pull a lot of strings (and pay a lot of money) to get him into UCC and he didn’t do all that to have him get there and slack off.

I could tell mom was feeling uncomfortable and I was too. I don’t know why I had to sit there and listen to all that. If dad wanted to use Paul as an example, it was unnecessary. I love school and do very well, plus Paul and I are nothing alike. I can see why he hadn’t been home in a year. I wouldn’t want to come home to this either.

We were saved by the dinner bell. Michelle was lucky to miss the first few hours of Paul's visit because she had to work, but joined us just in time for dinner. Things seemed to have smoothed over once we all smelled mom’s steaks. Dinner went well but if anyone said anything school related, I’d see dad tense up. So we tried avoiding the topic all together.

I could tell Paul was completely defeated by that point and literally shoveled his food in.

He, Michelle and I got to sit down and talk a few minutes before he left, but he was really itching to get back to campus. Or just to get out of this house as fast as possible. I don’t blame him. But I do miss having him around.

He said his goodbyes and was out the door a little after 8 pm. It was great to see him but wish the night never happened, for his sake.

Extra pics:
Just a little Michael and Celeste spam because I think they are too cute.

That cloud looks like a… bathtub?

Here’s a closer pic of Celeste. She looked like this with a thought bubble of a kiss. Wonder what that's all about.

Notes (& lots of 'em!):
-Yay! Finally another update. It’s been a hectic 2 weeks at home and not much time to sit down and play. It took me 2 real life days to get through 1 sim day. But luckily there were no crashes or weird happenings. And I'm still trying to decide which size pics I like best in my updates. I'm much too lazy and anal to manually resize each one individually. So it's either large or extra large.
-One of the family members must have bought Alia while they were at the mall one of the many times I’ve sent other sims down there. I let them keep her because I really had no idea what I was going to write about for this family and having the dog helped.
-Celeste is a townie I made/downloaded and is the reason she doesn’t have a profile. I might keep her and Michael together for a while because they’re really sweet together. Their attraction score is 60 which is pretty good for not having to change any turn ons/offs. Dominic is also a townie that I made. I forgot to note their attraction score but they most likely won't work. She's Fortune/Knowledge and he's Romance and I see him as the "bad boy" all girls are attracted to at one point or another. ;-)
-If you think their house looks different from their last update, then you're right. Their old house was extremely too large and jam packed with everything any sim could ever want (and even had a bowling lane in the garage at one point) and it was ridiculous to play (and ridiculously boring). So I moved them into a (still) large house, but not nearly as insane.
-I have Michelle working in the education career since I'm planning on putting her in that track once she graduates college. A little experience is always good to get your foot in the door (although with this family, you can just pay your way in anywhere). But since when can teenagers be substitute teachers? Apparently teenaged sims can. The careers really annoy me sometimes.
-I get out of work earlier during the summer so updates should come a little more frequently. *Fingers crossed* :-). My play style will also be changing so that will help, too. So hopefully whoever is reading will forgive my lack of updates and will stay tuned!