What are you up to right now?

[modelmgt]

@amylu: Congrats on your lawn house! I'm sure it will be fabulous when all is sorted. I do like a well-behaved baby.

@jo: Apart from, what, 4 people being in the hospital not a lot is happening? Seems like that'd be plenty, good grief. Glad everyone is pulling through and that you have some distractions between visits.
Yes, first I fixed Chapter 1, then shortly after put out 10. 10 is out, btw; sorry for the mix-up. I posted it in the chapter-spamming post (Temple of the Golden Thread)and updated my siggy thinking that'd be good 'nuff. There is a lot of updating and posting to do at times like that, partly my own fault for having multiple places it's posted.
As it's saturday night here I mostly dropped in to update my page on the first bit of progress on 11.
Not anything of note happening at the moment,(life-wise) which is a welcome change, and for once I have a weekend to myself if I want it.

[amylu1988]

Thanks modelmgt. The building work is yet to start, but the asbestos is all gone and the main appliances are now here too. It's a long process but definitely worth it.

Jo, I hope things are going better for you and your family now *hugs*.

Yay for a free weekend modelmgt! I'll catch up on your update as soon as I can, I'm off to my parents' house for more birthday presents in a moment.

[joandsarah]

Three people in hospital. Steve's dad now has a pacemaker and a large lump, I had heard they were a lot smaller but his is quite large. His brother had terrible blood sugar levels (diabetic) they still don't know why he is having dizzy spells as they don't seem to be related. My mum is so so, she is back on her full strength depression medication and now heart medication. Thing is at that age when you go down you don't often get back up, but she hasn't got any worse.

Latest happening here is the puppy, Oreo (now 19 weeks old) is a digger and dug a hole out, the neighbour let us know both dogs were out so we put some rocks where the hole was -which she moved and got out again! So they are both spending the night in the other bathroom while we figure out what to do.

Amy, glad there is no more asbestos, that's terrible stuff. How goes the wedding planning?

[amylu1988]

*hugs* to you and your family Jo, hope everyone's out of hospital and on the mend soon.

Our friend's dog escaped earlier, took them 7 hours to find him! Hope you've had more luck with yours, and that there's an easy solution for you.

Wedding is on hiatus with all the expenses for the house at the moment, it's looking unlikely for this year, so I got my hair cut yesterday. It was getting way too heavy and my curls were nearly straight! Plus it's still freezing cold here, so it was difficult trying to dry it in the mornings.

We're still waiting on the second builders' quote at the moment so we can decide who is working on what, then it will be 2 weeks of chaos and walls being moved, before we can get to the fun bit of decorating and buying nice things.

[modelmgt]

@jo: Wow there's still a lot going on on your end! Hate to hear about your mum but it's good that she's at least not worse.
I know about diggers as one of my favorite dogs was one; it was in her genes so it did no (or not a lot of) good punishing her. If only we'd thought of a way to get it thru to her to at least not dig by the fence; it took a long time to communicate that all digging was bad. Maybe the dogs being out/thinking of a solution can be another distraction. *hugs *

@amylu: Sounds like you two are being sensible with your plans. Haircuts are one of the small things in life, far as I'm concerned. Much as I wanted long hair as a kid, Rapunzel hair is just not practical, and I go for function over looks a lot of the time.
The two weeks will go by in a hurry, and it'll be fun to watch it all progress. Yay for buying stuff!

Welp, another Saturday, another progress update on 11! It's getting harder to drag meself out of the house on weekends, but I did have fun writing and designing. . . things. Now that a couple of key events have happened I can proceed much as I've been looking forward to for a bit.

[joandsarah]

I noticed mum looked a little brighter on Sunday and yesterday when I walked over she was noticeably brighter, she was up and at the door and told me a friend had been to visit. Two weeks ago she was saying nothing and barely moving off the couch. I think now even my dad sees it because at first he didn't notice a change until I pointed it out. So that is really good since he was getting stressed. We have arranged for things like meals on wheels and BlueCare for them so he has less to do. At least dad now realizes they should put their names down at the nursing home just in case. The waiting list is 6 months anyway. Going over there most days and arranging things, oh and finally we are going to be moving out of our large shop to a smaller one since the one we are in has been killing us financially for over a year now, but we had a lease and the owner would not let us out early. He's a charming chap-not. Cleaning and painting will be up next so I'm really glad we have my parents in a better place health and care wise before doing that.

[modelmgt]

@jo: Glad to hear everyone on your end is doing better. Sounds like you're doing everything you can for them.

Saturday was busy due to "oh Schiff" mode. Yep, we're calling it that. Thank you auto-correct.
Family came down and a mother's day dinner (for sat)started getting planned around thurs or fri; during the week it's hard for me to get anything but work done anymore so buying small gifts, etc. was certainly not happening.
SO sat came around and it was doing one normal saturday store trip and then fighting to find 2 decent mother's day cards (as in def. Not ending in "because you're my mommy" and not "from both/group" cards lol), plus there was a flower arrangement to sort out and figuring out what I was going to do with my own folks. Phew. Since we did the dinner thing Saturday, my folks and I went to eat tonight, early, and afterwards I finally got my chaptering time in! Got a couple of other major things accomplished @home in the afternoon also.
Not a bad weekend, but not what one would call relaxing.

Anyway, here I am with another progress update on 11, and I took photos of a couple of new builds. Maybe I will share them one day.

[joandsarah]

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums or mums of members here.

[esmeiolanthe]

Jo, it sounds like things have been pretty stressful for you! I hope that everyone is getting better over there, and that things have calmed down a bit.

Amy, did you get a new hairstyle, or just the same one but shorter? And did you get all the building sequencing sorted out? Are you wanting a big fancy wedding?

modelmgmt, I can never find decent cards in the store. That's why I either make my own or don't give a card. (Making your own is easy, cheap, fun, and produces a better result -- but it *is* time consuming.)


I've been busy with figuring out how to take care of myself in a new city with a new set of stores and developing new routines. Plus, there's a lot to learn at work -- I've had so many lectures on various medical topics! Then there's the caseload, which takes some doing. I had a case I was working on today that i thought would take maybe half an hour and then I could pass it on to the next person... no such luck. One thing after another cropped up, and it ended up taking closer to two hours. I'm pretty tired by the end of the day. I'm getting the hang of things slowly but surely, and I'll only get faster, I can tell. But it's definitely exhausting. I've only gotten to see the kids twice in the past almost-two-months, too -- which considering that I used to see them twice a YEAR isn't much to complain about, but still... I'd invite them over, but what do you DO when you invite small children over? I want them to still think I'm fun!

[amylu1988]

My hair only does one style Esme, but yeah, it's just shorter. I had the layers put back in like I do every time, because the curls even them back out the more they grow. We want a small wedding, but our families and friends would all have to come from elsewhere, no-one lives in the same county as us, so that's where all the logistics and spending would come in. And we'd need to get a ground floor venue in walking distance from the registry office, as a lot of our relatives can't do stairs.

The short answer about the builders is no. We will be sorting it this coming week though, and by the end of June it will be done come what may.

And I'm the same, I tend to make my own cards for family and friends, but they always need planning and making well in advance because of how long it takes and the fact that nothing I want to make them with is ever in store when I want it!

Sounds like you're very busy learning things and getting used to a routine, Esme. Kids these days may have other ideas, but when I was little I just loved seeing my relatives, I was well known for enjoying washing the pots and cleaning the kitchen with my Grandma! That might just be me, though.

[joandsarah]

It's hard to know with my mum if she is getting better or not, in some ways she is but in others ways not. Thanks for any prayers or thoughts.

Buy or make some playdough and grab some playdough toys esme, or bubbles all kids love bubbles.

I know all about difficult hair. Sometimes I wish it was in for woman to get a buzz cut because that would make life a whole lot simpler! Not that I would, I'm too use to all my hair. But I can't help envy dh and his number 6.

[modelmgt]

Gosh, Esmei, Jo AND Amylu! It's exciting to see everyone drop in within a few days of each other, but I completely understand why everyone's been preoccupied.
@jo: I 've entertained the idea of shaving all of mine off once or twice, but theoretically you have to have the right head-shape to even pull it off, and then there's growing it all back if you don't like it after all.
I like doing things to mine too much to not have any, in the end.

Well I technically have 2 sets of shots from different builds, but will only be posting one build for now because the other would represent major spoilers for the current in-progress chapter.

It's up!
desirablediscourses.proboards.com/thread/3684/gr8-sk8-skate-torium

EDIT/UPDATE: Just dropped in today to let everyone know that the name of my secret project has been released!(by me, )
Up 'till now the post mentioning it has not given a name, and started with one teaser, not giving much away.
Today I also added the third teaser in anticipation of the project's release on the simming-forum public!
Get a date and all 3 teasers for it here:
desirablediscourses.proboards.com/thread/3685/secret-project-fugly-family-scrap
Thanks everyone, it's been fun being a tease.

[amylu1988]

Looks like I piicked the right day to be online, modelmgt. I look forward to seeing your project later.

Well it's been a funny week. What with the Brexit thing happening (why???) and several colleagues being on holiday, it's been very odd and very busy. I'm having a chilled out weekend and taking time to relax today and tomorrow. We have lots coming up in July including an 80th birthday, a family wedding and a few other birthdays, and the elusive builders are finally coming in less than 3 weeks, hooray! So I'm making the most of quiet June while it lasts. Might even load up my game, if I can remember where I put it.

How is everyone doing?

[modelmgt]

Just dropped in (again)to let everyone know that the actual Fugly Family Scrapbook presentation is entirely up!
The text in the notes area is small, I know, and I did everything I could to sharpen it up, contrast it, etc. Hopefully everyone has an option to zoom in and see it?
Enjoy!
desirablediscourses.proboards.com/thread/3686/fugly-family-scrapbook-bets

[joandsarah]

Yes Amy, what is happening over there in the UK?! Are they going to redo the referendum?