1.10--The Dennis's are Menaces

After a long and (mostly) sleepless weekend of the Dennis's getting used to their new addition, Mya and Robert decided to allow the girls to have a sleepover with some of their school friends... if only to distract the little monsters while they got some hard earned shut-eye and attempted to adjust Corrigan to his new sleep schedule before the regular grind started anew on Monday. 

(Robert really likes to be in his underwear.  I swear, about 90 percent of the pictures I have of Robert are of him wandering around like a loon in his underwear.  A man's gotta be comfortable, right? Also, totally had to recycle that second picture from the last chapter... I'm having picture troubles atm.)

 

"How would you little hellions feel about having some of your friends spend the night tonight?" Mya brought up casually while they were all watching television.

Robert looked absent-mindedly at the girls, a sudden wave of excitement hitting him as he realized this was his and Mya's chance to have at least a few hours of uninterrupted slumber.  "Yeah!" he suddenly blurted. "Think of all the fun you'll have... doing... uh, kid stuff."

"Ooh! What kind of kid stuff?!" Olive asked excitedly, whilst thinking of all the havoc that she could produce from it.  

Olive wasn't necessarily a troublemaker, but she certainly knew how to spice up the Dennis household, mostly in the form of ill-timed pranks and making up new diseases that she could scare her hypochondriac sister with. Although, after her last bout of convincing Sybil that she was showing symptoms of the "Three Legged Plague" (a horrendous disease that causes mutations, such as the growing of extra limbs, that can only be contracted by children with massive amounts of freckles), Olive was a bit hesitant to pull a similar prank again so soon after her last grounding.

"Do we have to?" Sybil chimed in.  She was never as social as her sister and was often uncomfortable around the other children, despite the fact that she did like most of Olive's friends... particularly Randolph Sargaent and Hayley Cornett, who didn't laugh at her when she ranted about whatever item, object, or chemical was on her current "Sybil's new neurosis" list.  Olive  and Hayley were the only ones capable of making Sybil laugh at herself when she went into her fits, while Randolph understood; he was just as weird as she was. 

"To answer your question Olive," Robert began, "... the kind of kid stuff that doesn't involve daring the other children to eat anything or creating new ailments to scare both your sister and your friends with..."

Olive frowned.

"Our neighbors already think we are strange, we don't want them to add unsuitable parents to the list..." Mya interjected.  Mya had already let her sarcasm pretty much cement their reputation as the "odd" family in town, not to mention her and Robert's morbid sense of humor that has been overheard numerous times.

Robert laughed. "...And Sybil, no you don't have to.  We just think it would be a good chance to spend some time with your friends before the school week starts up again.  Plus, you would be giving mommy and daddy a break..."

"C'mon Syb! It will be fun!" Olive insisted.

Sybil thought for a moment, before agreeing.  It would give her the chance to continue her conversation with Randolph about the dangers of processed foods and the advantage of cooking at home.

Olive immediately called Hayley, Randolph, and the new kid Teddy Pincher-Vaughn for their sleepover.  Not even 30 minutes after she made the calls, all the kids had arrived.

"It seems all us parents are on the same wave-length this evening, just wanting a break from the kiddos." Mya thought.

Once Sybil's lengthy conversation with Randolph had ended and Olive had beaten both Hayley and Tyler at every video game they owned, Olive thought it the perfect opportunity to tell a ghost story before they all went to sleep.  She made sure the tell a story that she had already scared Sybil with, to avoid getting into trouble later.

While Mya and Robert caught up on some much needed rest before they had to wake up in three hours to feed Corrigan.

"Do you remember when we could sleep whenever we wished?" Robert asked, waxing nostalgic as they lay in the bed they have owned since they were first married.

"Yeah... those were the days.  Although when our kids have kids, we can openly mock them while we sleep and they have to be up at ungodly hours to take care of their children."

Robert laughed. "That will be pretty awesome."

The next morning, Mya and Robert awoke unusually rested and ready for whatever this week had in store for them... or so they thought.

Monday:

Olive decided to start the week off with a bang, and proceeded to booby trap almost everything in the house...

...much to her family's dismay.

"That's it! You are grounded young lady!" Robert yelled as he sat on his third whoopee cushion that day.

 

Tuesday:

Robert somehow managed to break both the dishwasher and the computer in a single day; a personal record for even him.  He then made a terrible dinner for the family as an apology, which resulted in a small kitchen fire.  Mya made him promise from that moment forward, he would leave the cooking to her.

(It totally happened, but due to my current picture-taking issues I wasn't able to capture it.  I'm not going to lie, I love that Robert is a hilarious human wrecking-ball who destroys everything he touches.)

Wednesday:

Sybil was apparently unnerved by the movements of their gnome named Haboob, and had been recording his new locations all week...

...but his eventual relocation to her room is what sent Sybil into a paranoid fit.

Mya and Robert had to constantly reassure her that Haboob was, in fact, a nice gnome that was not planning the family's demise.

However, that didn't sway Sybil from keeping a close-eye on their wooden guest.

"I'm watching you," she warned.

Thursday:

Thursday brought Mya's birthday, which officially sealed her fate as the wrinklier of the two within her marriage. "Great, now people are going to assume I'm a cradle robber when me and Rob walk down the street." The unintended pun wasn't lost on Mya.

Her reflections were cut short when the Dennis clan all lined up to give her their presents.

(Sybil gave her the Bento Art she made.  Olive gave her the theatre mirror from their last field trip, and Robert gave Mya flowers... for now).

Friday:

By the time the end of the work/school week rolled around, the Dennis family was ready to settle down and relax for the weekend.  Mya decided that a makeover was overdue and took little Snuffle with her to the Salon... while Robert stayed home and watched the other two monsters.

After almost an hour of juggling her attention between the Stylist and Cor-Bear in his stroller, Mya's new look was finally finished.

That didn't stop her from fearing how her makeover would be received by Robert. "Oh God! What if I look even older?! People are going to think Rob married his grandmother!"

When she returned home, her fears were squashed when Robert immediately pulled her into their newly refurbished bedroom.  "You look sexy, babe."

"I look like an old woman.  You married a senior citizen."

"Yeah... a sexy senior citizen."

Mya giggled. "You charmer, you."

"By the way, what do you think of our new bedroom?"

Mya inspected their new setting before answering. "I love it.  I especially like our new bed."

"Care to try it out?"

Her kiss was all the answer he needed, although he had a different way to use the bed in mind.

"Good," Robert stated quickly as he pulled away from their kiss. "Let me go get the girls. Stay right there, babe."

As Robert left the room, Mya couldn't help but wonder what the hell Robert had up his sleeve.

Mya didn't have to wait long.

"All right. Everyone ready?"

"Ready for what?" Mya stammered.

When Robert grabbed a pillow off of the bed, and watched as the girls followed suit, Mya knew an epic battle was about the ensue. "For this!" Robert yelled as he hit Mya with their new pillow.

Mya put on her game face. "Oh, it.is.ON!" 

After the pillow-carnage had ended and the girls left to play video games and Robert went to check on baby Snuffle, Mya was left alone.

She looked around the room, at all the feathers that littered the floor, while listening to her daughters hollering at the TV and her husband cooing to their son, and knew that no matter how old and feeble she would get over the years... her family and the memories that they create together would stay with her forever.

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I've pretty much already cataloged the trials and tribulations that went with making this chapter, so I won't bore everyone with the details again.

I have been busy with getting ready for my last year of college (woot!) and preparing for my upcoming GRE's (not woot!) so my free time has been a bit sporadic.  But I am working on the next two chapters and should be finished with those soon'ish! 

In case anyone is curious, Mya is at level 9 with both her handiness and logic so she has almost achieved her LTW (the Tinkerer).  Robert is at level 9 with his logic as well and level 8 with his career (Inspector of Iniquities).  Poor Robert, I have been working him pretty much 24 hours Mondays through Thursdays trying to get him to level 10, but didn't realize that he would get there so quickly.  So for the time being, he takes frequent "vacations" to make sure he doesn't get to level 10 before he is an adult.  

Here's a close-up of Mya's makeover:

 

That's all for updates... now on to Chapter Eleven!

Side note: Mya and Robert are now up for download in the "Sims Dump" tab at the top.  Can't wait to see if people actually use them. LOL.