The Latest...

I'm currently working full time for Tucson Unified School District in their science department.  We provide quality Science education with Standard Based Curriculum.  Right now, we serve 57,000 K-8 students with curriculum and materials and refurbishes, pick up and deliver 5,500 Science kits per rotation to 117+ K-5 & 6-8 schools.  

Due to budget cuts, we are working with a staff of 8, including myself, who are responsible for all aspects of what we do at the center.  It is very labor intensive and takes up most of my time.  My weekends are used for recovery, and I have not bothered to look at any sort of Sims related object since September.

I'm still married.  We managed to work things out.  I'm still having trust issues, which may end up breaking all that we've worked hard for in the past few months.

My kids have been attending a public school, and though our adjustment period was rough, they learned to enjoy the experience.

... that's basically all that's happened in my life for the past 6 months.  I honestly don't know if I'll ever get back to The Sims, and that is regrettable...

Update

Sorry I've been away for so long. My life has taken quite a turn since I was last here. I started homeschooling my kids again, and about a month into it, I found out that my husband was having an affair and wants a divorce. I haven't really worked in 9 years, so I've been trying to find a job and I've enrolled my kids in school. It's been a heartbreaking couple of weeks.

I've pushed myself so hard this past week that I've made myself sick. Lupus + Stress = Un-mixy things. So, I've been fighting a ton of different things. It's also made my ulcer go all wonky, and I've been unable to really eat anything.

The week before I found out about the affair, I found out that I have hemochromatosis and will have to go in twice a week for theraputic phlebotomy. So, it's been a full couple of weeks.

I will do my best to get some more creations up, but right now I have no inspiration whatsoever, and whatever "free" time I have I spend with my kids or looking for work online.

School Starts Soon

School starts on Wednesday for the kids, which means that I will have very little time to play around on the computer. Most of you know that my kids attend a virtual academy, and since they're only 8 & 11, they're not at the stage of being able to work independently. We've also opted to go with a different school than we'd been attending for the past two years, so it's going to take us a while to get into a new rhythm. Hopefully, we'll all adjust well, and I'll be back in no time with some new content.

Thanks for all your support.

Older Wall Sets

According to poll results, the majority of those who were kind enough to vote would like to see the walls that came in only white trim, to be trimmed in different types of wood tone.

For the newer sets coming out, I promise to make a seperate set of just the woods; natural, oak, and cherry. Possibly walnut, but I don't want to get too carried away and people messaging me with a lot of "WTF?" comments.

For those of you who would like to see the older sets, like my Harvest Warmth Collection, please let me know. I will do my best to redo sets that have already been released, but only if someone really wants it.

Thanks.

Clowns are Creepy

Hubby and I took the kids to the circus this past weekend. I'd like to say that all the bright colors and fanciful atmosphere inspired new creations, but all I can really say is "$24 FOR COTTON CANDY!" That, and "clowns are creepy". I've never been a big fan of clowns. It may have something to do with watching Poltergeist at the drive-in at age 5, or maybe reading Stephen King's "It" while I was in elementary school, I dunno. Anyway, I'm now broken when it comes to clowns. I don't see them as happy, goofy, bringers of joy. I see them as creepy, evil-doers who must wear make-up because they're hiding something. The kids thought they were great, which I'm glad for, but one of the clowns touched me, and I thought I was gonna barf. That, or punch him. Yuck!

The best part of the circus, according to the kids, was the elephants. Because they did such neat tricks? No. Beacuse while they did such neat tricks, they pooped all over each other. There's nothing like a little, ok, a lot, of dung to really get the crowd going. It's been 3 days and the kids still say stuff like, "Remember when the elephants were standing on their heads, and that one big one had diarrhea?" Ah, good times. I spent $100 to look at poop. :)

The Sling Is Off, but Don't Expect A Lot Of New Content

I was able to take off my sling and wrist brace. YAY! Seems I'm all healed up... until next time, anyway. While I had a broken wrist, I was full of ideas for new wallpaper sets, etc., but now that I am fully able to start creating again, I don't seem to have that same enthusiasm. Especially since I've somehow managed to run into some not-so-pleasant people here on TSR. I know I shouldn't be bothered by other people's bad attitudes, but after putting in hours of hard work on a project that I share freely with other people, it stings when people tell you that you're "not good enough" or to "give it up". WTF?

I'm currently uninspired at the moment, but if any of you have any suggestions as to what sorts of items you'd like to see from me, feel free to let me know. Hopefully I'll get myself out of this funk. I really do like sharing, but I'm wondering if it's worth it anymore.

I'm probably the only person who's never seen this...

Today when I turned on The Sims 2 to check some of my new items in the game, I noticed something strange in the top left corner of my game. There, in all it's splendid pink glory, was what appeared to be a runaway Macy's Day Parade blimp. I think it was a pig, but I'm not sure since I couldn't zoom in on it.

Am I the only person who has never seen this before?

I Hurt Myself

Yesterday was the Friends of the Library booksale. Being the it was bag day (2 bags for $5. All the books you can shove in there. Wheeee!), I dragged my kids across town to see what we could find. I can never resist cheap books, and being that I am a master bag-stuffer, I know I'll get my money's worth. (Gosh, that makes me sound cheap.)

Anyway, I found out that they sell books by the box. You can go into their warehouse, point to a certain genre, pay $2 or $3 (depending on the size of box you want), and they will load them up in your car. You don't get to pick and choose what you get in these boxes, but who cares? Surprises are fun, right?

Being that my kids don't really want to look through rows and rows of books, I thought I'd get a few boxes of elementary fiction. I paid for my 4 LARGE boxes, and headed out to collect them. When I got there, I was informed that they were out of the large, so they'd double up on the small. No problem, right? Well, "small" wasn't very small at all. They hold 50+ books each. Now I have 9 "small" boxes of paperbacks.

After unloading boxes, sifting through each one, and then stacking them all up again, I've managed to hurt my right arm. My wrist, elbow, and shoulder are all in a huge amount of pain. I'm going to the doctor today to see if I've fractured my wrist... AGAIN. (It's never going to heal at this point.) I wanted to let everyone know that I will still be here uploading like a mad woman, but maybe not quite as much as I had been recently. I can only sit here for so long before I need to take something for the pain and rest the arm a bit.

Note to self: Next time bring the husband so he can unload boxes.

Kudos Lottery

I've come to the conclusion that 150 tickets is not enough to get a prize in the lottery, so I've decided that starting today, I will buy 25 tickets a day. That's 12500 kudos points a day. A DAY! I will have haul a** on making new things just to earn some more points to have any sort of chance at winning anything in the lottery. The funniest part is, I don't care what I get, I just want to win something. The mug would be super. I could proudly display it on my desk, and people would ask me how and where I got it. Then I could say, "It's a funny story, really...", and tell them about how I had to create about 5000 new things to share so I could earn points. It's beyond obsession, now. I HAVE to WIN! I WILL win! I have until July to buy as many tickets as I can, and buy them I will! Watch out, TSR. I'm on a mission!

New Paperback s

Wideopeneyes has this really great book mesh. As soon as I saw that it could be recolored, I jumped all over that. I LOVE books. My entire house looks like a book monster threw up on every possible surface. Since I like to make Sims of my friends, my family, and myself, I figured this was the perfect opportunity to make some recolors that I could randomly place around my Sims houses.

I absolutely love the Idiot Girl books by Laurie Notaro, so I made recolors of all of her books. My Sims are happily on their way to becoming a fire hazard. :)

Get wideopeneyes mesh here . While you're there, congratulate our newest Select Artist.