Summer 2012 - Straight

Christopher (28), Sophie (28), Elsa (6), Sydni (2)

Time was passing quickly and it was already time for Sydni's birthday.  Christopher couldn't believe how fast his daughters were growing up.

"You're so lucky to have a little sister," Sophie told Elsa.  "I know it was hard on you when she was a baby, but now that she's bigger, she's going to be a lot more fun.  The two of you are going to be the best of friends."

Or maybe not . . .

Things were looking better for Elsa.  She liked when her Daddy let her play video games with him,

but she wished she were better at it.  She hated to lose.

She liked it when she was allowed to invite kids over to play

and liked making new friends.

Somedays Sophie would come home, exhausted and sweaty from a long day of training and in a terrible mood

but she was always happy to see her family.  Elsa knew just how to put a smile on her mommy's face after a long day.

Sophie was learning to take things in moderation and not make everything in her life about sports and fitness.  She was starting to explore new hobbies.  She reminded herself that she didn't have to be good at them, but it was important to find new ways to relax.

Christopher, on the other hand was falling into a rut.  When they talked about getting married and starting a family, he and Sophie had both agreed that they wanted a large family with four kids.  Sophie was the more career oriented one and he was more family driven, so they had agreed that she would work and he would stay home and take care of the children.  Now he wasn't so sure he was happy with the arrangement.  He had to admit that things were easier now that Sydni was bigger, but taking care of children was hard work.  He found himself feeling depressed and irritable, snapping at his daughters, even pushing them away, when that was not the type of sim he really knew himself to be.

"I feel like I don't really do anything," he remarked one night over dinner. "When I'm not taking care of the girls, I find myself zoning out in front of the TV or playing video games." 

"Maybe you should take up a new hobby.  Painting has really helped me unwind."

"I don't know.  I just want a way to feel more useful."

"More useful?  You take care of the girls, cook, clean, do repairs around the house.  I don't what could be more useful than all of that."

"It's just not enough . . . I don't know.  It feels like something's missing."

Maybe friends were the answer.  Before the girls were born, Sophie and Christopher had friends over all the time for dinners or for poker night.  Now they and their friends all had children and rarely made time to keep in touch.  So Christopher called up a couple of the guys, Rich and Gregory, and invited them over to hang out for awhile.  He let them in on how he'd felt a little down lately.

"I went through the same thing when I lost my job," Rich said. "You just have to look for a new opportunity.  You might find yourself doing something that you love, that you never expected."

Christopher thought about it and he realized he needed to get out of the house more and contribute to the family and to the community in a different way than he had been.  He decided to put his college degree to good use and applied for the open teaching position at the high school.

It would mean hiring help during the day to watch the girls, but the excitement he felt as he headed to work that first morning, proved that the change was totally worth it.  He felt better about himself and about his life than he had in a long time.

ROS: Christopher Straight suffers depression (I could have done more with this, but since it seemed like this family was going through a rough time already last round.  I made this one about getting out of the depression.  Luckily for me Chris rolled the want to get a job in education all on his own.  I was considering him for the job already, since I needed another teacher, but I'm glad he wanted it too.  :)  )  

Spring 2012 - Elementary and Jr./ Sr. High School

New Eden Elementary and Jr. / Sr. High School 2012 - Melody Harris - Kindergarten, Elsa Straight - 1st grade, Bryce Ebadi and Bridget Ebadi - 2nd grade, Lance Huffington - 3rd grade, Kendra First - 5th grade, Sierra Thaytowski - 10th grade, Augustus Thaytowski - 11th grade, Dana Todd, Bryan Carson - 12th grade

 

This school year was going to be a new experience for Hope.  Since the hood had not yet found a replacement for Jessica's position as the elementary school teacher, Hope was going to be pulling double duty.

She gave the older students some brief instruction while the younger children were at recess, then set them up on independent study, doing research papers and preparing oral presentations.

The students had expressed an interest in robot building and the school was able to budget some money to purchase the tools to allow the students to experience shop class as well.

With the older students settled, Hope focused on the younger students.  She knew this must be a confusing time for them, so she wanted to make sure they felt comfortable and felt free to discuss any feelings they had or ask any questions that were on their minds.

She decided to push the desks aside and sit in a circle on the floor and have a little chat before starting their lessons for the semester.

Bridget's metaphor of her mother's passing being like her leaving on a very long trip to a place far away, provided a natural segue to the day's lesson on geography and foreign cultures.

"What are some things you are curious about places that are far away from here and about the sims that live there?"

Bryce spoke up, "I would wonder if they play the same kinds of sports and games that we do."

"I bet they do," Lance added.  "Just think, if you lived where there was snow and mountains, you;d probably go skiiing all the time.  There's no where to ski here."
Melody added, "Other places might have different kinds of birds and animals."

"Those are all good thoughts.  What about food?  Do you think sims in other lands eat the same type of food that we do?"

"No, and I don't think I'd like the kind of food that they eat.  I only like my food."

"You never know," Hope replied.  "If you tried it, you might find something new that you really like."

"I heard in some places around the world, sims eat bugs."

Bryce frowned at his sister.  "That's disgusting.  Can we go back to talking about sports instead?"

"I heard there are even places where sims eat rats."

"Ew.  Seriously, stop it.  Let's talk about something else."

Hope posed another question.  "What do you think about traveling to other nations and meeting sims from around the simworld?"

Elsa thought it would be great to make lots of new friends.  Bryce thought other sims from places far away would be too strange and foreign.

Hope then shared with the students the culture of her homeland, a nation that constantly had to rebuild, that was ravaged by continual storms, and considered the number three, incredibly unlucky.

After their discussion, Hope sent the children to the art room to work on creative projects.

The older students, Kendra and Lance used the easels, while the younger ones gathered around the coloring table.

They were to come up with their own civilization and draw a picture to represent it.

When it was time to break for lunch, Hope continued the international theme, by ordering Chinese food.  Even Bryce, who seemed so adverse to foreign foods gobbled it down quickly and was asking for seconds.

Spring 2011 - Elementary School

New Eden Elementary 2011 - Elsa Straight - Kindergarten, Bryce and Bridget Ebadi - 1st grade, Lance Huffington - 2nd grade, Kendra First - 4th grade

The subject of study for the elementary school this simyear was natural science.  Jessica started the activities with examining aquatic life.

The boots they caught were not what Jessica had in mind as a subject of study.

But, at first, that seemed to be what everyone was catching.

Not catching fish, wasn't the worst part, some of the kids, especially little Elsa Straight, were having trouble staying on their feet.

Even Jessica seemed to have trouble, much to her embarrassment.

But sticking to it was well worth the effort.

Soon everyone was catching one type of fish or another.

Having the children wear their coats and jackets was a good idea.  It was colder outside than Jessica had thought it would be.

So after a few moments of playing inside, the class headed inside to warm up and have some lunch.

A new high school student, Dana Todd, stopped by after her classes to help out with the little kids.  Jessica was grateful for the extra pair of hands and eyes.  The kids seemed to like her too.

After lunch and a potty break, the class headed back outside to look for insects and birds.

Lance: "Ms. Ebadi!  Ms. Ebadi!  May I be excused?  Please???"

He still wasn't feeling well after recovering from food poisioning, so Jessica excused him to lay down in the new teacher's lounge.

Also during the school year, they learned about planting seeds and watching them grow.

Jessica ended up doing more of the activity herself than she's initially planned.  Keeping five elementary school students focused on the activity at hand was no easy task.

Once the seedlings had started to grow, they planned a field trip to the Central Market Square to start planting the community garden.

The girls got to planting right away . . .

but the boys needed some reminders to get on task.  "Save the cops and robbers for recess, boys."

"Look, Mom, I'm planting," Bryce insisted as he got back to work.