Anniversaries and other things

So yesterday was a big day for us! It was six years since my Birdy became MINE! Yep, 6 years ago I had her fall from the sky and if she made it, she would be my daughter. *laughs* Just kidding, but we did do skydiving that night.

It doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but 6 years in SL is an eternity, if you think about how much can happen. We’ve definitely been through a lot of changes, especially in the past 2 years, but one thing stays the same always. My little bird and I are stuck together like glue. And now we have someone in our life who loves us both so much, and even more than that, he genuinely enjoys us just the way we are – silly, bratty, quirky, and all.

In other news, we have been putting in so much work on Bluebonnet in the past week! I’m really happy and excited about it! It’s got such a tiny town feel to it, and everything is in walking distance and I love it!

I knew when we started redoing the sim (sorry, I know Patch Linden wants us to call them regions and not sims, but man, that is hard to remember!) Jeremiah and I definitely wanted to put 7 Seas fishing out. It’s something fun and chill to do, you know? So… the Bluebonnet Fishing Dock!

I just adore how this came out! I do not really think I’m very good at sim design. But I am good at putting together a set. So I’m just putting together sets and luckily, everything is coming together pretty cute! It’s very tiny town. It’s not one of those super photogenic sims, but it’s super cute!

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, our fostering came to an end. Sometimes you can really really like someone, but you just don’t fit quite together as family, and that’s okay. Friendship is super important, too! It’s always been my belief that a very very long trial was necessary when adopting, but sometimes you know fairly quickly that you and the kiddo just are better off as friends. Anyone who has Lyra join their family will be incredibly lucky, and we definitely wish her nothing but love and luck in her future family search.

I think… Yeah, I think that’s it for now. I have shopping and some parcel landscaping to do today (primarily shopping, because that’s more fun than landscaping on a Saturday) so I’m off to go do that!

Even More Change!

Oh my goodness, it’s amazing how much can happen in a short amount of time!!

So as I’ve mentioned before, we are redoing Bluebonnet from the ground up. We’ve been putting in quite a bit of work on the land. It’s coming along great, I think! Filling in the empty spots isn’t the easiest for me since I’ve never been all that great at decorating land, but it’s been pretty fun!

We still plan on only having 5 parcels for rent, but we have 2 tiny apartments above the book store and the thrift shop, and I’m considering renting those out too. Like, I’ll decorate them and rent them cheap. Yearssssss ago, there used to be furnished rentals that would give you like 10 prims for 20L a week or something like that. It was super super cheap! I am not sure if people would be interested in that at all, but I still plan on decorating the apartments. I think it will be fun!

But are you ready for our BIG change??

Ever since Jeremiah and I decided we had a future together, we batted around the idea of more kids. We were definitely not opposed to the idea, but it wasn’t anything we were actively seeking to do. But… our dear little friend Lyra was looking for a foster family. So we talked about it. Then we talked to Birdy about it. Then last night the 4 of us talked. Andddd…

We have a foster kid!

We are so beyond thrilled that she has chosen us! She is the sweetest thing, and I think we’re going to have so much fun together. Hey, she likes books, Harry Potter, and Disney. What more could we ask for? 😀

Next Stop, Our Life!

Well, the honeymoon is over!!

Haha, no, not in THAT way. Did I scare ya? I mean, we left our honeymoon vacation today! We had an absolutely lovely time. Our little private paradise was everything we could have wanted. We had almost 2 weeks of fun, games, and just being together. I swear, almost every night was like a date night for us!

But it’s time to get back to doing what we do. We’re setting up our new home on Bluebonnet, and guess what else?? We are reopening Bluebonnet for rentals! I was not sure I’d ever do that again, but truthfully, there is so much land that goes basically unused. We’re only accepting 5 renters (well, we have 5 parcels up for grabs. Families are, of course, welcome.) I hope we’re able to get some really nice people in there. Jeremiah is handling the rental side for the most part because he’s used to it from doing rentals on his own region. I’m mostly going to be decorating the land and making sure everything looks like somewhere people would want to live. We’ll have a few places for people to hang out and see and everything. I really just want it to be a place that feels like home at all times.

So, even though I am sad to leave our little slice of paradise, I’m very excited for the next adventure.

Next stop, our life!

Daydream Believer

I’m introverting today. *laughs* Yep, using it as a verb.

I am quite the introvert. I will fully admit it. The older I get, the more I embrace it. Having hours alone is not just a luxury at this point. It’s a necessity. Yes, even in SL. I know that sounds funny, given the social nature of SL. But sometimes I just want to log in and not talk. It’s a little harder to come by these days because if I see my family, I want to be with my family. But I think that just makes me appreciate the quiet a little bit more.

Oh, I never did talk about the fact that we have more family living closer, did I? Well, my niecey Bella [Riley’s big] and her girls decided to get a sim, and they moved it right next to us on Bluebonnet! Lolita is decorating their land [I watched her for a few minutes earlier today. I’m sneaky!] and it’s looking as beautiful as you would expect. To get there, we go through a tunnel and once we’re out of the parking lot, the sim is more country than Bluebonnet is. But beautifully so. How wonderful it is to have even MORE places for all of us to enjoy together!

But, until I log in again… I’m going to go have a wonderfully quiet afternoon to myself. ❤

Winter Love

Oh goodness, sorry for being the worst blogger ever over here! I’ve meant to a billion times, but you all know how it gets during the holidays. Always something to do. Then [if you don’t read my style blog or follow me on plurk], I had the worst tech week ever last week! Even now, I’m not 100% up and running correctly.  Let me put it this way.  If I want to turn on my computer, I have to find the button on some thing that’s hanging out of the side of my computer. Which is, btw, completely open on the side. It’s fancy like I don’t even know. *laughs*

My monitor also pooped out on me in all of the mess. I mean, to be quite honest, the fact that the thing worked at all was kind of amazing.  It’s on for hours daily and it lasted a good 7 years or so.  That’s really wonderful!  I’m very careful with my things, which is why when something breaks, it’s almost devastating to me. My headset finally broke earlier this year and it had lasted me over 10 years.

BUT the good thing in all this mess is that I am getting a new video card. That’s actually kind of what started this whole deal.  I got my early Christmas gift, a new video card.  But of course, it’s much bigger than my old card [going from a GTX 550 Ti to a GTX 970, for the curious. I dunno what the numbers really mean, I just know the new card is better. LOL!].  So because it’s bigger, and stronger, my power supply wasn’t enough and the dang thing didn’t fit in my case anyway. Luckily, I have my own personal geek squad, so a new power supply has been ordered, I have a new case, etc etc.  And I have a new monitor that is bigger and brighter than my old one. So once the new power supply comes in this week, I’ll totally be cookin’!

Oh, and top of everything else, I was stricken with the plague this past week. I don’t get sick often anymore, so this was unexpected and definitely unwanted. I’m healing up and all, but still. It sucked. 😦

But enough about that stuff. 🙂  In SL, it’s now winter on Bluebonnet!!  I’m loving it!

My sis has done all the winterizing this week. It’s so so so pretty! If you came by Bluebonnet in the fall, you should come back around now to see all the wintery things. It’s just lovely!

So on the adoption front… Well, our 2nd Heritage panel expired and I chose not to put up another one right now. I think it’s hard to go on trial with someone around the holiday season. One advantage with had with our girls is that we had plenty of time to form a bond with them when we met them. During the holidays, there will be so many times when we’re busy or distracted or just plain ol’ not here. And that would NOT be fair to a kid. Plus we have Abby’s 2nd adoptaversary coming up! I think I’d feel bad being all “We’re celebrating this kid, don’t you hope you make it this far for us to throw you a party?” *laughs* Maybe next month we will see about it again.

Mmm… I think that’s basically it for the moment. 🙂

Mostly Ride, Not So Much Die.

To start off with… Hey, we’re having a party! Woo!!

[Little known fact about me, but every time I say we’re having a party, the song “Party” from the awful late 70s movie Junior High School runs through my head. It was Paula Abdul’s first acting gig and boy. It’s not good. But you can see her old nose. So there’s that.]

The party should be fun! We’ll be dancing in the barn, but if you come by, you’re more than welcome to run around the sim and explore!

One of the best parts of the sim, to me, is the fact that we have a huge road that goes all the way around! I just love driving these days, and I do it QUITE a bit. But tonight I was a bit laggy so I decided to let Aldwyn drive me around. He decided not to use a car, but instead pulled out a motorcycle. Hey, I’m ride or die! [Preferably not die, though.]

Being driven around is just as fun as driving myself. Maybe more fun because I can snap pics. Of course, we did kind of get a surprise bath…but luckily in SL, motorcycles can fly. At least now we’re clean for the party!

When The Evening Pulls The Sun Down

It’s almost 3am. Hey, insomnia. Hey.

So yesterday was Bluebonnet’s 7th anniversary. I know, right? Who keeps a sim that long? *laughs* Okay okay, so lots of people do. But considering I didn’t really want the dang thing in the first place, it’s a long time. It looks so different now and so beautiful! I believe we’re going to have our sim-warming party on Wednesday evening. Nothing fancy, maybe just a street party or in the pumpkin patch or something. I’ll play some music, maybe there will be cake. 🙂

Aldwyn, Birdy, and I took a hot air balloon ride over the island tonight. It’s just so lovely.

After Birdy went to bed, we settled down for some quiet time. Well, quiet after we laughed that Aldwyn was basically wearing the same shirt in SL as he was in RL! It was really funny! He even sent me a pic so I could see. I guess our RL fashion habits are never too far away, even in SL. But we were mostly quiet as he got stuff ready for work and I played Crossy Road. [Ugh, love that stupid game so much.]

I really love that we’re getting back into a routine now. Summers are so all over the place for us. During the summer, we could go days without seeing each other or even talking much, if at all. And it’s not like it was a surprise or anything. After all, we’ve been together for 5 years, so obviously this was not our first summer together! But it did suck, so I’m happy we are able to spend a little more time together now.

And with that… I should probably go to bed! ❤

When It Finally Arrives

You know what I love? That moment when you KNOW it’s fall, despite what the calendar says. I was outside [because my internet has been down since this morning and there was nothing else to do] and suddenly our much anticipated cool front came in. And the humidity suddenly lifted and although it was still warm, there was just a certain feel about the whole day. It was really nice.

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We’re planning on a sim-warming party next week. Nothing formal. Just a chance for people to get together, dance and laugh and talk, and check out the amazing sim Lolita has created. It’s truly beautiful!! I’m thinking maybe Wednesday in a nod to the old hump day parties, but who knows. Maybe we’ll do it next weekend. It kinda depends on what’s good for all of us.

Next week is also Aldwyn’s and my wedding anniversary! Can you believe it’s almost been 4 years? Crazy, huh? I thought about combining the sim-warming and our anniversary party together, but I don’t think I want to do that. The sim-warming is really about Bluebonnet and the family. An anniversary party would be more about us and we can do that later. 🙂 Well, if we remember. I’m pretty sure last year we forgot about it until a couple of days later. *laughs*

Ever So Pretty!

I *think* Lolita is almost done with decorating Bluebonnet!

I mean, I could be wrong, but honestly, I can’t think of anything else she could possibly add! Every bit of land has been tended to and the place looks AMAZING. I can honestly say that this is the best Bluebonnet has ever looked in its history, even before the place was called Bluebonnet. [Long time readers/friends may remember that when the sim was transferred to me, I renamed it.] Everywhere I go on the island now, it’s gorgeous. We have a road that goes allll around the island now and I LOVE to drive. [Don’t listen to my family. I’m a great driver!!!]

It’s funny, though. I knew Bluebonnet like the back of my hand for so long. Now when I look at it, I don’t know where anything is! *laughs* I tried to find what I thought was the middle of the sim last night but I was wayyyy off. Because for so many years, the middle of the sim was up on a hill. It’s like my direction is all off!

Our house is just about finished, too. I really think getting a slightly smaller house was a good thing. I do wish it had just ONE more bedroom, but it’s not really a necessity. I’m still adding a few touches here and there but mostly just randomness from The Arcade at this point. I’m still not QUITE sure what to do with our back patio, though. I have ideas, but I think I’m being lazy about actually doing anything. I was extremely under the weather last week to the point of sleeping pretty much all day for several days. Which was terribly annoying, to be honest. I feel somewhat better now, but my brain is still foggy, which is why I probably cannot figure out what to do with the patio. It’ll come to me, though. It usually does.

Or I’ll just stick a big ol’ tree on it and be done with it. *laughs*

Life Is A Highway

First things first. I’m not sure anyone could possibly understand how much I love this car right now. I mean… this is honestly my most favorite car that I’ve ever had in SL and I used to have a hot pink one that flew. I’m so in love with this car! It’s from Consignment and you can get it at The Arcade this month. I LOVE IT.

Okay, now that I’m done squealing about my new car…

All of my renters have left Bluebonnet. 😦 It’s sad. Emerald wrote a really lovely blogpost about her time on Bluebonnet, complete with pictures of the the fun she had living here. Some of them left me “notes” on their parcel info so I’d find them before they left. It’s been… emotional, to say the least. But honestly, that’s why I fought so hard to keep the sim running. It was them.

But, things change. Life is a highway and all that jazz. 🙂 And I am LOVING having the Oleanders living here now!! Oh gosh, you guys. The sim… well, it’s never looked so good! Lolita is doing such an amazing job, I am eager every day to run into SL and just be here! I was so stressed with the sim for so long, it was getting to where I didn’t want to log in at all because logging in meant chasing people for rent and everything associated with running this sim. To not have to do that anymore is incredible. And to live on what is becoming such an immensely beautiful sim is just wonderful!! She worked on half the island over the weekend while the other half was still occupied and I love it so much! Now she can start working on their own home and the other half and I can’t wait to see it all!

But the road is calling and my car and I have to go!