01-05. Opal's First Haunt

Opal Suarley is the little girl buried in the Pleasant Rest Cemetery in Sunset Valley. She's an orphan with no known family, living or dead. She's the only child in the graveyard. I felt bad when I saw her, especially after an evil ghost frightened her.

So I decided that Opal needed to come live with the Malloys. The first thing to do was place her gravestone on the home lot and let the family get to know her. Then she would need to join the household some way, maybe through the Oh My Ghost opportunity. After that, she could be resurrected with Ambrosia.

From the Sims Wikia:
Opal died as a child by drowning. She has dark skin, brown hair in pigtails, green eyes, and full-face makeup. Opal is characterized by the stars on her outfit and face paint. She is one of the six premade deceased children in the Sims 3 series. 

Opal is a Scorpio. Her traits are Daredevil, Family-Oriented and Good. She also has a lifetime wish (International Super Spy), which is uncommon for a child.

Opal appeared that first night at the Malloys and made herself right at home.

She didn't haunt any furniture or make a racket. She just wandered around the house while the family slept.

Quin and Laurel woke early and realized Opal was there. Laurel was the first to introduce herself. She complimented Opal on her ghastliness.

Like most haunting ghosts, Opal was tired and immediately asked Laurel for a bedtime story. Laurel agreed.

Laurel's chosen book was Handiness Vol. 1: Unplug it First! Laurel had a wish to increase her handiness skill, so I guess she decided to sneak that book out. I noticed her skill level went up as she read to Opal.

After reading, Opal still seemed restless. She and Laurel chatted while Opal sat on the bed.

Then Opal asked Quin to read to her. His book choice wasn't much better: Things that Go Bump in the Night. Hmm. I need to check the bookcase and make sure the household has appropriate books for children and toddlers!

Quin is Nurturing and Excitable. He was thrilled to have Opal there.

And Opal enjoyed her time as well. She was happy, and I think her heart was touched by all the attention.

But then, around dawn, Opal vanished back into the grave as all haunting ghosts do.

01-04. Child Care and a Ghost Orphan

Quin went through a second day with his Child Care Center. The playpen will be a lifesaver until I can figure out how to tend these 3 toddlers. Quin has two clients and a toddler son of his own.

Luis, Laurel and Quin's son, is learning his skills quickly. Luis played peek-a-boo with Sam in the playpen.

Sandi started out in the playroom with a snack. Then she went straight for the skill toys.

Once the two client toddlers got into the playpen together, they began learning to talk and their Charisma skill increased. The playpen also kept their moods up.

They worked on the abacus for Logic too. But they still had potty accidents. Quin still hasn't been able to get those two potty trained, but Luis learned the skill today, thank goodness!

The clients had a great time though. Laurel didn't have to go to work that day, so she helped by nursing Luis and bottle feeding the other two clients. But Quin was still exhausted by the end of the day.

I made sure Quin spent some time with his own son, and their relationship improved.

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Meanwhile, just out of curiosity, I checked out ghosts around town. Here's Lolita Goth, a YA who died by electrocution. She's buried in the Goth family graveyard.

Anabelle Oinkslopes also died of electrocution. She's another YA, but she's buried in the city cemetery.

Tragic Clown (adult) is buried in the Sunset Valley cemetery. He died of drowning. An interesting character. I also found a little girl haunting the cemetery. Opal Suarley died by drowning. She has no known parents. Poor little thing. No family, living or dead.

I caught this starved adult ghost, Joel Astroman sneaking up on Opal and scaring her.

That's when I decided that Laurel and Quin would rescue the ghost orphan and adopt her into the family!

01-03. New Home, New Jobs

Laurel's first act in their new home was to climb in this decorative mini-pool. The house has a regular pool in the back yard, but she chose to swim here. I later knocked this pool out. It looked nice, but I didn't want sims jumping in here all the time.

One of Quin's traits is Computer Whiz. He got right on the house's cheap computer. I later sold that and gave them a better laptop.

Luis needs to learn his toddler skills. The house had no baby/toddler furniture, so I had to add a bunch of stuff. I sold other unnecessary or expensive furniture because the family doesn't have a lot of money at this point.

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And speaking of money, Quin and Laurel found new careers. Laurel is a Natural Cook and her Lifetime Wish is Culinary Librarian. She took a part time waitressing job at a restaurant (NRaas Careers).

Quin opened up a home Daycare business. He has the Nurturing trait. His Lifetime Wish is Master Mixologist, which doesn't seem to fit with childcare, but that was the Wish he had in Riverview. I kept it, deciding he could work on his bartending skills on the weekends. Eventually, he and Laurel will own their own bar and bistro.

So ... Daddy Daycare. Two toddlers arrived. Thank goodness Laurel's job didn't start for a couple of days. I've never done the daycare career, so I was in learning mode.

The three tots were hungry at the same time, but Laurel helped by breastfeeding Luis. Then, all three had to use the potty. Luis is almost potty trained. Quin stuck him on the potty first, but the other two messed in their diapers before Quin could get to them.

Well, the truth is, Laurel distracted him by coming over to smooch. I guess Quin needed the support.

Both Sam and Sandi have the Excitable trait. So does Quin. I think that's a plus for relating to each other. The little girl, Sandi French, is also a Slob. Sigh. She was good at finding activities for herself though.

Sam Sekemoto is Artistic. He kept playing the xylophone, which annoyed the other two toddlers a little. But hopefully, he'll get better with the skill.

As you can tell, I didn't manage to get many screenshots that first day. I was VERY glad the kids were picked up on time. Now I remember why I've never done Daycare or the Surrounded by Family Lifetime Wish!

Molly French is Sandi's mother, but Molly's roommate Fiona McIrish was the one who came for Sandi. Molly is a single mom, a Hopeless Romantic and Flirty. Fiona, her roommate, is a Journalist and also a single mom. 

Leighton Sekomoto is Sam's father, and he was the one to pick him up. Leighton is a single dad. His mother came to live with him so she could help with Sam. Leighton seems to be a good guy, wants to be Surrounded by family.

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Here are just a few pics of the home after some renovations.

01-02. The Indoor Garden

The Malloys just moved into a house in Sunset Valley that has an enclosed patio area inside the main living space.


As is, the roof is open to the outdoors, and the floor is unfinished with flowers planted directly in sandy ground.


I've been experimenting with different looks for this area. Since I keep my cold seasons very short, I could close the roof for those few days and just deal with the unfinished room moodlet for the brief time the sims garden.


Then it could be used as a regular garden area with a sprinkler to water the plants.


I like this indoor garden area. It's simple for growing just a few plants. And using the sprinkler would save time.


Or, I could use the area as a combo patio/garden room, close the roof permanently, and use the indoor planting rugs. This might be best if I want to grow even less plants.

The home has plenty of sofas, so I thought a better idea would be to take out the patio seats and put in another small table for casual dining instead.

And that's how I have it in game right now.

01-01. Refugees from Riverview

A very scary thing I saw in an old save. When I first started playing Sims 3, I had one game, one game that ruled them all! LOL I put everything in that Riverview world, and my sims lived Epic+ lives. Well needless to say, that world bloated itself into oblivion! Over two hours just to open the game. 

One family at a time, I had to save my sims to the library bin (if I could--sometimes that didn't work) or the CAS bin, and then settle them in other worlds. So, I opened up that glitchy Riverview world ONE LAST TIME to rescue a couple of simbots. Trust me. There is nothing that would motivate me to open this save ever again! 

After freeing the last of my sims from that nightmare world, I happened to see an odd thing about the Malloy family. I wasn't sure what it was, so I followed them and opened their house to check.  Thank goodness I'd already saved this family to the bin several weeks before then.

This is Laurel who used to be Laurel Grisby before a nose job and a marriage to Quin Malloy (one of my sims).


She looks quite normal, right? Now, Quin and Laurel have a toddler son named Luis. I found Quin upstairs putting him into the crib. Take a look at this... oh, and prepare yourself for a shock!

Luis has turned into a clone of his mother!


Yes, Luis the toddler is gone, replaced by a YA daughter (still named Luis) who looks exactly like her mother. I have never seen anything this freaky in game before!


Miss Luis popped out of Dad's arms and walked downstairs where her mother was. I checked the family tree so I know this new invader is suppose to be a YA daughter of the Malloys, but she's the same age as her "mother."


Luis and Quin started listening to Laurel on the piano, eyeing each other in a very strange way. And Quin was still holding his arm as if carrying a toddler.


I tried several resets, but Quin and Luis just walked back into the house to listen to Laurel's music. Quin's arm relaxed, but that was it. The whole thing just gave me the creeps. Luis' expression! So I closed out the game without saving. Yikes! Good-bye forever old Riverview. Thanks for the memories. 

0-Family Members. Sunset Valley

Quin Malloy

Age: Young Adult

Occult: Human
Traits: Nurturing, Excitable, Neat, Friendly, Computer Whiz
Zodiac: Aries
Lifetime Wish: Master Mixologist
Career History: Daycare (current)
Spouse: Laurel Malloy
Children: Luis (son)

Laurel Malloy

Age: Young Adult

Occult: Human
Traits: Good Sense of Humor, Handy, Natural Cook, Good, Artistic
Zodiac: Aries
Lifetime Wish: Culinary Librarian
Career History: Culinary (current, part time)
Spouse: Quin Malloy
Children: Luis (son)

Luis Malloy

Age: Toddler

Occult: Human

Traits: Sailor, Disciplined

Zodiac: Aquarius

Parents: Quin (father), Laurel (mother)