My Latest Obsession : The Sims 4

I've been pretty absent lately, which is nothing new. Blogging really hasn't been my thing lately. It's not that I'm not passionate about books still. I am! Very! Probably even more so than before, because I have been reading a lot and not concentrating on what I'm going to say about the story. Just enjoying it for what it is.

But I'm sad to say, (but not sorry), my reading has taken a bit of a nose dive as well. You see, I finally upgraded to The Sims 4!!! Moving on to the next game installment is always bitter sweet for me. I become so attached, and when you make videos and such, it's hard to start all that over in the next game. There are different controls to learn, and lots of research.

Plus, I heard some not so great things about The Sims 4. I read about how it was a step back. And it is.. as far as lot size goes. In the Sims 3 you had these large worlds to work with. In 4, you have smaller worlds, and we are back to loading lots, where as you didn't have to do that in 3. I'm sorry if I'm boring all you none gamers.. but I do have a point!!

While 4 is a step behind in that aspect, it's allowed them to add so much more in the way of details and over all interaction. We now have careers!!! And we can go to work with our Sims!! This is awesome. I have spent the past couple weeks working with Aubrey on her family, the mom climbing up the Doctor career.

My poor husband has been neglected. lol. We eat dinner and head right upstairs to the computer. Poor guy. lol. Well, last night we finally achieved Aubrey's goal. She wanted to deliver a baby. Behold.....

We worked so hard on that promotion. You need to diagnose and treat patients. It's awesome, but hard, and time consuming.

I started my own family as well. She is also in the medical career, but not as far, because Aubrey's sim has getting the most attention.

She likes eggs and toast. lol. They are so stinking adorable when they eat. 

Her name is Samantha and this is her boyfriend Agustin. 

Here they are getting engaged. I've been working on planning their wedding. 

I know that sounds crazy, but the game play is a ton of fun! Sims 4 has a ton more to do as far as the game play. The events you plan have actual tasks that you need to do to make the event successful. 

So that's what I've been doing for the last few weeks. Living another life. lol. 

My favorite thing so far in The Sims 4, are the facial expression and personality the Sims have. I've been making little memes with them. I will leave you with a few. :) 

Feel free to take any of these if you want. lol. Now I'm off to get some reading done. :) 

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Labels: fun, gaming, memes, obsessed, sims, sims3, sims4

The Rhodes Family - A Sims "Birth" Story

So last week I showed you the Rhodes Family. :) They are the cutest. When I left of playing last week, they were expecting their first child. I was going to work on my Stacking the Shelves post tonight, but since I didn't get anything, I figured I would play a little.

Some laundry and light reading while the Hubs is at work... 

But uh OH!!! 

This shit makes me laugh every time. I sure hope I didn't make faces like this while I was in labor. lol. 

Since baby daddy Ben wasn't around, she had to trudge out to the car and drive herself to the hospital. 

Don't worry, he arrived in time to see the birth, but then she walked out by herself with baby Alex. Teaches him for being late. 

Such a happy little family. 

Sims is keeping it buggy as usual. This bitch keeps dropping through the floor every time I have her do something. lol. 

So there you have it.. a Baby Boy named Alex. :) I plan for them to have one more child. Two if it so happens to be twins. I might have her do some of the tricks they say to make them have twins and see if it works. I've tried on in the past an it was a bust. 

I want to play this family through, because I have university. You can start building their skills really early one, so that they will be well learned before they have careers. 

Well, I hope you all had a great week and got lots of books. I have an audible credit that I can use, but I just couldn't figure out what to get so I'm completely empty handed. 

Happy Belated New Year!! 

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Labels: gaming, sims, sims3

The Rhodes Family - A Sims Story

I love the Sims!

True Story. lol. This Gif I found pretty much sums up my obsession. I don't always play the sims to make videos. Sometimes I just like to play! To build a family, or house and just see where it goes from there. Over the Holiday I've been doing just that. My daughter picked out an expansion pack I didn't have yet, "pet's" and I decided I had to get some use out of it. :) 

So here is my latest family. 

Meet the Rhodes!

Ben and Stephanie Rhodes have been married for a while. They met in high school. They are established in their careers and have a beautiful house. I wish I could say I built it, but I just moved them in. 

They live in the town of Hidden Springs and just adopted their first pet! A kitty name Ryah. 

Stephanie finds much enjoyment from torturing the poor cat. lol. But Ryah doesn't seem to mind much. 

Winter is upon them. I figured since it's the Holiday Season, we would start out with that theme. 

Yay for Sim snow.. It's only a dusting at the moment, but according to the weather forecast, there will be moderate snow fall tomorrow. Snowmen in my future. 

That is not the only exciting thing going on with the Rhodes.. they are expecting a bundle of joy soon. 

Unsure of the gender, because Sims does not have ultrasound. Bummer. 

But they are excited, regardless! :) 

I've been dying to play a family through. I them to have at least 2 or 3 kids, and I want to play them through all the way into college.. "University Expansion Pack". I haven't had a chance to really play with that yet either. 

Stay tuned next week for their birth story. lol. 

Please forgive my nerdiness. :P

I need to figure out how to make these adorable Sims gifs. 

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Labels: game play, screenshots, sims, sims3, total nerd

{DON'T} Want Your Bad Romance

Forgive the punny title, but April and I were thinking about swoonworthy boys and what makes a good romance this week while compiling our picks for Top Ten Tuesday and preparing for Valentine's Day -- which neither of us apparently celebrates because we both seem to think that romance and love are things that should be celebrated all year long and not just on the day dictated by greeting card companies and candy manufacturers. And before you start thinking we're bitter old shrews who spend the "day of love" alone, weeping over our pathetic, loveless lives, keep in mind that we're both happily married. We just know the difference between romantic gestures that are made because they are expected and true romance.

However, after picking out our top swoony books for TTT, we were discussing how a swoony couple doth not a swoony romance novel make. Some of our favorite couples and relationships are downright swoony, but the situations and books we find them in are anything but romantic. So, we thought we'd pay homage to those couples that we love to see fighting real-life, slaying vampires, or battling evil angels...as long as they're doing so together. April even made one of her awesome SIMS videos just for this occasion.

But first, a little on what each of us thinks makes a swoonworthy romance:

April:  My favorite books are those with a love story. It doesn’t have to be Valentine’s Day for me to crave a little romance. I read the swoons all year long, but since Valentine’s Day is Friday, we are discussing what we love the most about romance in books, and even talking about some of our favorite book couples.

My favorite kind of romance is the slow burn. I liked the characters to work their way up to it. For example, Rose and Dimitri from the Vampire Academy series, the attraction is there from the very start. Things don’t fully heat up until about book 3, but the sexual tension leading up to that point... delicious.

Another kind of romance I love is the realistic one. I’m going to use the Summer Series by Jenny Han as an example here. Belly and Conrad… these two. *sigh* what got me the most about these books was how real it felt. Their relationship is not an easy one, and there are some swoony moments for sure, but there is also real life. Real disappoints, grief and obstacles. They were very realistic to me.

Foreign Romance, you know where I’m going with this? Anna and the French Kiss. It’s one thing to fall in love, but to fall in love in a foreign place with a cute foreign guy. The accents, oh the panty dropping accents. You get my point. lol.

We mustn’t forget the “Knight in Shining Armor” type of romance. While this isn’t my absolute favorite, when it’s done correctly and not creepy, it’s amazing. ♥ The Iron Fey, Ash the Winter Prince will always hold my heart. He’s so devoted to Meghan, it’s just downright beautiful. Book 3, The Iron Queen has some of the most romantic scenes ever. I love them together.

The nice guy romance, these are really great because I hate jerks in books. I like a genuine nice guy (I married one) . So when a girl falls for the nice guy, it makes me giddy. ♥

I’ll take any romance as long as it’s meaningful.

Jen:  I usually prefer my reads with at least a tiny bit of romance, though I can appreciate a book that doesn't include any. Like Vicious. I just finished reading that one, and though there was almost zero romance (read: none), I kind of swooned over Victor Vale, even though he's a morally ambiguous character. Those tend to be my favorites, though.

To me, a great romance does not necessarily need to include a swoonworthy rogue or an epic love story. I like my romances to feel genuine, to be realistic, and to burn slowly. I like when love creeps up on characters, especially if they weren't friendly with each other to begin with. But I also love when characters have known each other forever and have only just realized that there's a spark there. In real life, I prefer nice guys -- I married one, too -- but in my books, I do tend to root for the bad boy, or at least, the guy who's probably not the best match but would definitely be more fun. But that's not always the case.

In contemporary novels, I usually gravitate towards the nice guy...the one with genuine appeal, who treats a girl like she should be treated. Some of my favorite couples fitting this description are Joe and Lennie from The Sky is Everywhere, Augustus and Hazel from The Fault in Our Stars, and of course, Cricket and Lola from Lola and the Boy Next Door, which also happens to fit under that whole "friends who become more" category I mentioned. These books are all so adorable and so authentic, it's no wonder I found them listed on so many Top Ten Swoony Books lists yesterday.

With sci-fi and fantasy stories, I tend to prefer the world-weary guy who knows his way around or can show the heroine a thing or two -- the guy who happens, more often than not, to also be the bad-boy type. This is where the swoonworthy rogue comes in. Like Raffe from Angelfall and World After. I love him paired with Penryn in those books because she's all about fighting to save her fellow man, and you're never quite sure what Raffe thinks of that, but you also know he's not a truly bad guy, despite his bad-boy demeanor. There's also clearly some sexual tension between these two -- ahem, that scene in the cottage in front of the fire with the peanut butter and cereal, anyone? -- but Raffe is so far from his evil angel brethren that he won't even make a move on Penryn because it goes against all of the laws of angels consorting with humans. This kind of makes them star-crossed lovers, which endears this couple to me even more. Another couple I enjoyed watching fight their growing feelings, despite being enemies in the first book, was Warner and Juliette in the Shatter Me series. Warner isn't just a bad boy...he is truly the bad guy in the beginning, and yet, Juliette can't help falling for him anyway.

There is no such thing as a perfect romance, though, which I guess is sorta my point. My favorite romances take time to grow, they evolve and change, and sometimes, they end. As long as I can find a romance at least somewhat believable and the insta-love/lust is kept to a minimum, I'm on board.

Oh, also, I love what April said about the panty-dropping accents. Those are always welcome in my romances! =)

And now, the debut of April's SIMS video featuring our favorite swoony couples:

What's your favorite type of romance? Would any of our swoony book couples make your list?

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Labels: all the swoons, discussion, love stories, romance, sims