Where you are

Round 5: January 2012 (Winter)
George Meadows is 55 and Belinda is 54
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Narrated by Belinda

A new year meant new beginnings for us this year. Near the end of last year, George and I sold our house and had a sale to get rid of a lot of our old furniture. We didn't think that many people would want all our old junk but we made a decent amount of money.

We bought a very lovely ranch home on the other side of town and we're officially all moved in now. We absolutely love it and it's not all that much smaller than our old home in terms of square footage.

We're doing much better financially since the move which is always nice. After buying all new furniture and putting some money in our savings accounts, we were able to splurge a little bit. We upgraded a lot of the electronics and appliances and I was finally able to buy the piano I've wanted for years.

Not wanting to feel left out, George bought a high powered telescope and some nights I can barely get him away from that thing. He'll be nearly frozen solid before he decides to come inside.

We also had enough money to buy a second car and trade in my old one for a new one. I would love to upgrade everything since we're able to but I think we have everything just the way we want it now.

It was a little bittersweet selling our old home, though. It was like we closed a chapter in our lives. George and I are creeping up on 60 years old and we've come to realize that I most likely won't bear any more children. We've always wanted more, but somehow life got away from us. So it’s been a little unsettling in between all the excitement.

In between moving, I've been keeping myself busy with my new business, Ciao, in Summit Heights. I opened just after Thanksgiving and business has been ok. Not many people downtown have heard of my restaurant in town so I just have to build up my clientele.

I've been running it on my own so far which has been a challenge. I haven't found a chef with enough skills to help me make the foods I want to sell, so I have to do all the food prep, restocking, sales and then clean up at the end of the night.

I usually don't leave until very late in the evening, which has been burning me out.

I was forced to rest when I came down with a bad cold 2 weeks ago.

I didn’t feel all that terrible but I had a nagging cough that wouldn’t go away. So that meant I had to stay far away from my restaurants.

Some home remedies seemed to clear up my symptoms in a few days and it was back to work for me.

Unfortunately, George ended up catching my cold, but he ended up becoming seriously ill. He was very weak and was having chest pains.

I was really concerned, so I made him go to the medical center to get checked out.

Davina rushed over from campus after I called her. I didn’t want her to worry but I had no idea what was wrong with him.

After Dr. Robinson ran some tests, she found out that George had a mild heart attack. Luckily we came to the medical center when we did or it could have been much worse. She said he needs to rest and she'd release him after she monitored his condition for a couple of days. She was very optimistic which made me feel so much better.

The rest did him some good and he was ready to go home after 2 days in the hospital. He just got promoted to Clone Researcher and I guess the pressure of doing that kind of work really took a toll on his body. I hope he will take it a little easier on the job or at least request a cut in hours when he goes back. I don't know if I can deal with another one of these emergencies anytime soon!

Extras:
In case you're not a member of N99, I posted a tour of their new house. And because I'm lazy, I copied/pasted the text from my post :P.

When you enter the house, you walk into the spacious living room with music area on the right and tv area on the left.

The open doorways to the right of the tv area lead into the large eat-in kitchen.

Through the doorway to the left of the kitchen is the hallway leading to the bedroom but there's also a door that leads into the office. Belinda loves to make money any way she can, so she paints, writes novels, gives financial advice, owns businesses... you name it, she's into it... if it involves making money lol.

And part of the bedroom. This is the most interesting angle, or I just love the walk-in closet I built for them.

Notes:
-George's mild heart attack wasn't an ROS or anything. For some reason, he kept mysteriously dying on me after he got sick. I thought he was dying due to the cold but his motives were always very high. He'd get home from work and just drop dead, even after I moved them to their new home. I was going to let his death stick if the plead with the grim reaper didn't work but it did. I gave myself a pass on deaths at least until next round, so to get around my cheating at his death, I wrote it in as a mild heart attack. He’s a Knowledge sims so he didn’t mind me bringing him back from the dead ;).
-I really wasn't expecting to use my medical center this much but it's really getting a workout! You saw it last update, this update and will see it again next update when Alicia gives birth, finally!
-When I moved George and Belinda into their new home, they both rolled the want for a baby. Uh, what? No. As much as I want more sim babies, these 2 are done.
-I used the customer controller to boost up the number of folks who came for the yard sale and they ended up reaching level 5! So I decided to go for the money benefits so I could comfortably decorate their new house.
-I think this is the first 1-story home I've played in a very long time. Most of the houses I play have 2 floors. 1 of them has more than 3 (the Stevens' house).
-The Business Directory has been updated with pics of Belinda’s businesses. I plan on making the outside of Ciao (full name will be Ciao Italian Catering) more interesting when I feel like recoloring signs.