Chapter 12 - Growing Pains

Things started going south when my dad died.  He kept us all laughing when he was alive.  No one here is laughing much now. 

My mother oscillated between tears and rage and I wasn't in a good place myself. Mother's tears abated after a few days; the rages, not so much.

We all have our ways of coping.  For me it's video games, whether it's developing them, modding them or playing them.  Lia cooks and gardens.

Mother has given new meaning to the expression "merry widow".  Someone should probably have a talk with her about her reputation and how that could affect her granddaughter.  Me? Not bloody likely!

Luc Desjardins is the newest member of our family.  Mother and baby are both fine.

Between the romances and the rages, it's probably not such a good idea to leave the children with Mother.  Lia and I both work nights; what else are we going to do?

We're paying the price for it; our darling little social butterfly has had a metamorphosis.  She's now a hormone-ridden bundle of mischief.  She's invited Uncle Jean-Paul to a fake party, told one of her grandmother's paramours that she's a criminal mastermind and those are just the ones I've been told about.

Given her grandmother's proclivities, it could be much worse; at least she's focusing the hormones on one particular boy, her childhood friend, Roman Rose.

Luc is still a delight but I fear for his future, as Humberto, his best friend forever, is an evil little piece of work.

I'm getting much too old for all the drama; Yvette is grown and Luc is nearly so.  The better part of valour seems to be to hide out and wash my hands of it.  

Chapter 11 - Amusements, Weddings and Nooboos

I had a nasty shock when I went to ask Quentin for a date and discovered that he'd died.  Shayne provides a suitable distraction.

Lucien and Lia were married in a lovely evening ceremony on the lawn.  Note the appropriately flat-bellied bride.

Said flat belly didn't last for long.

We went visiting in Oasis Springs.  Jean-Paul was out; Eve wouldn't permit us to enter the house.  That's probably a blessing; Jean-Paul is neat but Eve most assuredly is not. We did, however, spend some quality time with the nooboo, whose name is Tyson.

Meet Yvette Desjardins!

Joseph has a new friend.  She's a bit skittish.

Nonetheless, his new friend is now his bride.

The newlyweds have moved to Oasis Springs, so it seemed that I would need to learn to cook.  Fortunately, Lia has master chef aspirations.  She's also doing her part in the garden, and, I must confess, much more graciously than I did.

I've kicked Shayne to the curb.  He'd been pestering me to divorce Yves, as if that were going to happen.

Yvette is in school now.  She and her cousin Tyson are inseparable.

Is this really necessary? Unfortunately, I suppose it is.  The family hoard of potions is now under lock and key after one went missing.

Abysmal fashion sense notwithstanding, Cordell seemed to have potential.  I could not, however, forgive his gratuitous smashing of my granddaughter's dollhouse.  Ah well, as Josette would have said, "Toujours gai."

  

Chapter 10 - Generation 3 - Young Adults

Yves has grown old on me.  It makes me so mad, there's an entire shelf full of potions and he's still opted to age.  He says his sons are nearly grown, he's accomplished what he set out to do in the comedy world and he wants to go out at the top of his game.  I refrained from asking about the wife who loves him and wants to keep him around; my sharp tongue will not make our remaining time any pleasanter.  

We had a little talk about getting out more.  He still has zero interest in spending his leisure time in night clubs, but he's agreed to throw more parties.  These are epic events; with his jokes, Liliane's cooking and a well-stocked bar, what could go amiss?

Well, there is  a certain party crasher. He came for Kendall's sister, Kristi.  

He came again for Everett Gillis; I think Yves was more broken up about that than I; Everett was so childish as to be getting a bit tiresome.  Anyway, this grim crasher is a buzz-kill; I'll speak to Yves about a adding a security detail to the next party roster.

Lucien has grown up and gone to work as a code monkey. His luck with girls is changing; there's a new girls' group home in the neighbourhood that probably won't move away any time soon.  I worry a bit about what sort of baggage a girl from a group home might be carrying, but Lia is lovely and seems to be perfect for him.  

I wish I could say the same about Jean-Paul's new flame, Eve, from the same group home.  In my humble opinion, she's a few bulbs short of a marquee. 

He's a young adult, now, though.  He appears to be as devoid of ambition as ever; no thought of a goal beyond having a large family. 

Since Everett died, I've been amusing myself with Quentin.  Sometimes I'm not sure why I bother; I have yet to meet the man who can hold a candle to Yves.

Liliane is now a celebrity chef.  She and Kendall are moving to Hidden Springs to open a restaurant.  Joseph threw a fit about leaving his friends, not that I knew he had any. So he's staying on with us.  He'd best mind his manners or he is so out of here.  

Lucien's courtship of Lia is progressing smoothly.  I wonder if he knows how much history is repeating itself here.

Joseph wants to follow in his mother's culinary footsteps.  He has grown up without incident.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Jean-Paul.  He did, however,  immediately step up to the plate.  She turned him down flat.

Between the rejection and having been caught in the first place, he very nearly died of mortification.  The entire family rallied around to bolster him up.

Soon Eve was back with some big news.  Once again Jean-Paul stepped up to the plate.  We put together a wedding in record time and  the newlyweds have moved to Oasis Springs.  I really hadn't expected to be a grandmother so soon.

Chapter 9 - More Teens

Josette has left us.  She took a nap after Lucien's birthday celebration and awakened face to face with the Grim Reaper.  On his way out, Grim Reaper complimented my piano playing.  That may be the first compliment I've heard for anything I've done since Jean-Paul was born.

Not to speak ill of the dead but if I never hear the words "Comme il faut" again, it will be too soon.  For instance, I don't know how the garden became my job.  I get that it's "comme il faut" that the garden continue after Josette is gone.  Yes, I appreciate perfect vegetables on the table.  Yes, I appreciate the income that perfect flowers bring us.  Yes, I understand that Yves is too busy with his comedian's career and Liliane with her chef's.  I even understand that somehow the garden was already my job before Kendall was ever in the picture.  I'll keep doing it; I've become quite proficient.  I just wish I'd been consulted. 

I love Yves to pieces but he doesn't get that I need more excitement in my life.  We used to go to the clubs every now and then but that went by the wayside when Lucien was born.  I get that with his work, the last place he wants to see is the inside of yet another night club.  Still, I need to get out of the house occasionally.  I'd settle for the library. For that matter, I'd settle for a bit more attention from him when he's at home; most nights he stays up all night working on his comedy routines. 

I'm no longer young; all I want to do is have a little fun before I die.  

I do a good job of supervising the boys' homework.  I know I'm supposed to supervise Lucien's computer usage as well. As though it would do any good; Sims Forever is my limit.  I don't know the difference between a tweet and a poke and care even less.  So, we bought Lucien the best computer available and I suppose we'll just have to trust him with it.

The poor boy is having the most awful luck with girls.  I don't even remember his first crush's name; she moved away the day after she came to dinner.  This one moved away as well; what was her name? Reagan? Raven? Whatever, it was something like that.  Georgia lasted a little longer but she was downright mean.  She eventually moved away too but that was no great loss; Lucien had already asked her to leave the house.

Jean-Paul has reached his teens but has no interest whatsoever in the computer.  In fact, he seems to have no ambition whatsoever.  He says he wants a large family but is remarkably incurious about just how he might support one.  Joseph is a nasty piece of work who is very  fortunate to reach his teens.  He should count his lucky stars that Josette never managed to grow a cowplant.

Between children and plants there are days when there's no time left for a workout and I'm putting on weight.  Yves and Liliane have both given up on working out and resorted to Insta-Lean potions; there's no way I'm going to be like that.

Speaking of potions, when Josette died, Yves and Liliane made her room into a museum of all her collectibles.  I find it a tad creepy, but they're also hoarding potions of youth in there.  Yes, I swiped one.