Rivera - Don't be worried.

The day before the local summer bake-off, Lupe Rivera tearfully said goodbye to another daughter. It wasn't really goodbye goodbye, Penny was just moving down the street, but it still make big fat tears spill down Lupe's cheeks. She should have been glad. When Penny grew into a child, her chances of being adopted shriveled up, but Claire Abbott came to the rescue and offered Penny a home.

She had been only gone one day, but Lupe missed her already. Before the bake-off the next morning, Lupe's stomach was in knots. "Claire and Penny will be there. What if I see her and start crying? What if she's happier with Claire than she was here?" she unloaded on her husband, Marc.

"Look, Lu, we are in this to find homes for these kids. Claire's a great mother, and if Penny is happier, then that's even better." 

The nerves began really getting to Lupe, and she bolted to the bathroom, feeling ill. She next dealt well with nervousness. 

With a sigh, Marc retreated to the quiet of the driveway, where he was restoring an old, worn out car. It was relieving to get away from the stress of his wife's sudden hysteria and just focus on something that made sense. His goal was to restore it like new and sell it to a collector to buy some new playground equipment for the kids.

After the baking competition, Lupe still felt terrible. She couldn't blame it on nerves this time. She lounged on the couch, hoping her stomach would settle down, when the doorbell rang. "Who is coming over at eight at night?" she thought, glad the children were all settled in bed.

She looked through the peephole and saw Sunday Flax, the very woman who crushed her in the Bake-Off. "Do you need something, Sunday? I'm not feeling very well this evening." 

"I could tell," she said with a smile. "I brought something that should make you feel better."

"I think a good rest will make me feel better," replied Lupe curtly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bug you, you just seemed really sick today and I-"

"I'm sorry, Sunday. I'm not feeling myself. Come on in."

Sunday gestured for Lupe to sit at the table and she uncovered a steaming bowl of soup. "If you're still feeling sick after this, then you're terminal," Sunday joked.

"What's in this?" Lupe asked nervously.

"Secret recipe. But it works every time."

Imagine my surprise when Lupe was hunched over the porcelain god with a pregnant? thought in her head. They weren't ever supposed to have babies! That's why I started this stinking orphanage. :P Oh well. I guess Lupe (or Marc? Bwahah!) had other plans.  

Grimm-Pruett Wedding

Nadine Grimm and Cain Pruett were married in a small ceremony at the Grimm house. Cain chose to take his bride's surname because there weren't any male Grimm's to carry on the name.

Nadine began the reception with a toast to her sister and maid of honor, Abbey. She thanked her "for helping with the wedding and everything else."

Lemon Creek Bake-Off!

Lemon Creek's lovely ladies worked up a storm in their kitchens to put their culinary skills to the test in Lemon Creek's first annual Summer Bake-Off.

Claire Abbott strutted in with a yummy-looking Baked Alaska. In appearance, it was absolutely stunning, but when it came to the taste-test it just didn't stand up.

Lupe Rivera tried her hand at baking and submitted a tasty cake. She went home with third place and a $50 gift certificate to Cup-a-cino.

Rose Abbott's Crepes Suzette was a total crowd-pleaser, earning her second place and a free meal for two at The Sour Lemon.

In the end, it was Sunday Flax who stole the show with her unassuming Berry Pie. When pressed for her secret, Sunday merely winked and said, "My lips are sealed!" First place medal in hand, Sunday was awarded with a free meal for four at The Sour Lemon and a year-long membership to ExerCity. "To work off the sugar," she joked.

"You know," commented Xavier Silverstein, who hosted the event at his restaurant, "You would think it would be the flashier desserts that would get the most points. I really like that it didn't go as expected."

We asked the newly adopted Penny Abbott what she thought about her new Nana's layer cake.

"Can we have bake-offs every week?"

I know that top picture doesn't fit completely, but I'm too lazy to fix it right now. :P Maybe later.

News updates

• More news in Lemon Creek! We now have a Downtown area! We incorporated Pepper Ridge, a nearby buzzing nightlife district, and now all residents of Pepper Ridge are Lemon Creek residents. Welcome to the Cooper and Flax families! (Link leads to info at the Resident directory)
• Along with new families comes new community lots. ExerCity, Cup-a-cino, Pepper Ridge Roller Rink, and Johnny's Diner are just a few of the destinations Lemon Creek's residents can now visit.
• Penny Rivera aged into a child during a quiet family birthday party at the orphanage. The Rivera's were quite nervous because it is harder for a child to be adopted than a toddler, however Claire Abbott has requested adoption of Penny and has been approved.
• Rose Abbott's brush with death is now over. She is feeling much better after a dangerous brush with pneumonia, but is back on her feet running things at Abbott Farms. 
  

Meridian - Music&Money

Even in his deams, Asher couldn't get a break. Since his father was murdered, a good night's sleep was very hard to come by. This particular night, Asher was haunted by nightmare after nightmare, the most terrifying of which involved his father, resurrected as a zombie, standing over Elena's bed, and he couldn't get to her room in time to save her.

He was finally fed up with waking up covered in sweat, heart racing, so he decided to give up on trying to sleep and see if anything was on television.

He heard the floorboards creak as his sister crept into the livingroom, looking exhausted.

 

"Can't sleep either?" she asked, groggily.

He shrugged. He hated when she could tell something was wrong. He was supposed to be taking care of he

r, not the other way around. Asher stood up and heade

d for the kitchen.  "I need a drink," he muttered.

"Ooh me too! Can you bring me one?"

He chuckled as he poured her a glass of water. He was going to need something much stronger.

"Why can't you sleep?"

"I'm just really stressed out, lately," he said, trying to change the subject.

"It's Dad, isn't it?"

"No! Uh, no. That's not it. I'm just tired, I work all day, and we're running out of money."

"Why don't you try going downtown tomorrow- well, I guess today, since it's technically 1:30. Play some music at a bar, unwind. If you set out a jar and ask for tips, people will totally give you money."

It couldn't hurt to try, right? He loaded his guitar and amp into the rust bucket called his car and drove to a bar in the new Downtown in the early afternoon. He set up his gear and put out a jar. After quickly scribbling "Tips, please :D" on the label, he was ready to go.

He always seemed to forget how great playing music made him feel. It was like all the stress and concern melted out of him with each song. He played for hours, and more than one tipsy patron paid for his drinks. At one point, another sim joined him on drums. Even though Garret was off beat, it was a blast to play with another music lover.

Asher started feeling pretty sleepy and the drinks were getting to him. He cleaned up his equipment and checked his jar. His jaw dropped when he saw how full it was. He made 800 bucks, doing what he loved. And thank goodness, because he was able to afford a cab, instead of trying to drive in his condition.

Asher's looking to start up a rock band. He needs a drummer, a bassist, and a singer. If any of your sims are musically inclined, please, please, PLEASE drop me an email at lemoncreekpo@yahoo.com if you'd like to talk about getting a band started. 

Rose Abbott Falls Ill

Just days after her only daughter became engaged, Rose Abbott has come down with a mysterious illness.

"She just sleeps all day," her husband, Frank, told us. "She won't eat or play with her granddaughter. We're all worried sick."

Marc Rivera, the local doctor, has been paying her daily visits. He spoke with us as well, saying, "It started out looking like food poisoning, but now it's something like the flu. If she doesn't start eating soon things could get really bad. If she doesn't improve in a day or two, I'm going to urge the family to take her to a city hospital. There's only so much I can do here."

Grimm - Money Woes/Crow - Help Wanted

Abbey Grimm logged on to her computer like any other day, intending to check her finances. Find out how much they had left in the account for this month, what bills need paying, etc. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief. There was a long list on the credit card bill of expenses, a wedding dress, champagne, food, flowers.

"Your wedding is going to cost HOW MUCH?" Abbey screamed at her sister.

"Look, Ab, when you get married you'll understand. I just want it to be perfect."

"And perfection requires a thousand dollar wedding dress? You are going to take all that crap back before the wedding on Wednesday. We can't afford this!"

Nadine tried to explain that most of the items were non-refundable. "And I cut the tags off my dress!" Abbey walked away before Nadine could finish.


Across the neighborhood, another fight was going on.

"How do you not tell your husband that you are pregnant, Eve?" Ryen Crow asked, sounding defeated.

"I wanted it to be a surprise! And sometimes women lose the baby before now, so I didn't want to say anything if I wasn't absolutely sure."

"This surprised me alright. And you did it in front of the entire neighborhood. I want to make this place our home, Eve, but I can't do that if you're going to make me look like a fool in front of our neighbors."


Ryen couldn't sleep in the bed that night. He was too mad to sleep next to her. "I'm sleeping on the couch," he spat bitterly. But the couch wasn't comfortable for sleeping. He was restless. He glanced on the floor near him and saw an empty soda and a bag of chips that Eve had been munching on earlier. 'This place is filthy,' he thought. 'We should really hire a maid.'


And that's what he did. The next evening he put out an ad, searching for someone to help tidy up and do little things that were needed around the house. In the ad he typed, "will pay very well," to hopefully speed things up.

There was an email in his inbox first thing in the morning. Abbey Grimm applied for the position. The flexible hours and easy work would be just the thing to pull in some extra cash and still leave her able to work on her novel.


Abbey came in to work the next morning at eleven. Eve was in a meeting with the spokessim talking about starting a school, since she was a teacher in their old town. "Thanks for doing this," Ryen said, feeling awkward. He barely knew this woman and she was going to be cleaning up his messes. He made a mental note to be more neat.

"Hey, don't sweat it," she replied. "I've gotten pretty good at cleaning, taking care of my sister all these years. Can you show me how your dishwasher works?"

Ryen walked Abbey through how everything worked, even showing her how to make the sink faucet run "hot", as if she couldn't figure that one out. After he walked her through every mundane task, he left her to it.

She spent the afternoon getting comfortable in her new job, thinking the entire time, "This is the nicest house I've ever been in, and I'm scrubbing its counters."