1.19 – A Honeymoon and Baby Bumps

As I felt the baby kick, I rubbed my belly with anticipation. Life had changed so much since Marvin and I had been married. We had gone on our honeymoon, came home, gotten pregnant and now we were expecting our first child. It blew me away!  

I looked up at the painting next to me, which prodded my memory of our honeymoon. We had a splendid time there and bought this beautiful picture as a sweet reminder.

****************************************

The day after our wedding, we left for our exotic honeymoon destination. Thankfully, it was an uneventful flight.  When we got off the plane, we were introduced to a new and beautiful place called:  Shang Simla, China!

We took a taxi to the place we would be staying, which was a rental home Marvin was able to find for a decent nightly rate. It was a little expensive, but it was worth it!

I was so excited to finally be there! So excited, in fact, that I gave Marvin a smooch as we stood in the middle of our paradise.

After we enjoyed each others lips, we went inside to start our honeymoon bonding.

Later that afternoon, we headed out to The Scholar Garden. When we had gotten off the plane, we had received a brochure of different things to do around the area. This place seemed like the perfect place to start our adventure.

Once we arrived, we walked around a little. Marvin went to go look through a telescope. He said he could see the waterfall across the valley from there.

I played chess by myself, which was nice as I didn't have to concentrate as much. It was a nice relaxing atmosphere and I was enjoying the peace and tranquility.

We should have known that the peace and tranquility wouldn't last.  We were so far away from home, though, so we didn't think they would know us here.  We were wrong. Paparazzi found us and we quickly moved on to the next place.

The Academy was the perfect place to start working on our martial art skills.

Of course, I don't know if it was smart to wear heels while practicing. Fail!

We both worked hard, though, and earned our first belt!

After we were finished there, we went back to the house and continued to relish the love we had for each other.  He was quite the man!

The second day started out with a yummy breakfast of banana pancakes. It was a little difficult to eat using chopsticks, but we overcame.

We went to another location we had both wanted to visit:  The Temple of Heaven.  It sounded interesting, so we left after breakfast. However, we were a little disappointed as we didn't find much when we explored. After that, we decided to split up. I know, it wasn't very romantic, but we both had decided one adventure on our own would be healthy.

Marvin had an adventure request. He was supposed to go and find something (don't remember what). He said it was pretty simple and once he found the item, he returned it to the owner. He also got some kind of special coins when he was done. They told him he could use them to buy things at the market.

I went to the Forbidden City. I had read about it in the brochure and it sounded mysterious. It was very difficult to find, though it did add to the enigma of the place. Then, I realized the map was upside down.  Once I turned the map right side up, I found it.  Silly me.  My adventure would start at the Halls of the Lost Army.

I explored some and I was enamored by the statues. I wanted to do more, but I ran into a door at the end of a dead end hallway.  It looked like I needed some kind of special stone key.  However, I didn't have it nor did I know where it was at.  I had to leave as there was nothing left to do.  Maybe Marvin and I could come back some other time and together we could find a key.

I went to the market next. As I was passing by the little park in front, I noticed it looked odd like something was out of place. After playing around with a foot plate I found under a bush, it lit up and a huge hole opened that had stairs leading to a lower level. I couldn't resist and found myself being drawn downward.

While I was walking around below, I found some gold coins. I showed Marvin later and he said they were the same ones he had received. We'll have to come back some day to see if we can find more. Maybe we could buy something amazing with them!

After awhile, I started getting tired, so I trudged my way back up to the surface. I wasn't surprised of my tiredness since we literally walked EVERYWHERE.

I was in pretty good shape, but I was not used to this exhausted feeling.  I hope I wasn't coming down with something. I needed a nap desperately, so I decided to lay my sleeping bag right next to the market and take a nap.

I eventually made my way back to the house and Marvin was there when I arrived. That night, we went straight to bed as we were just beat. The nap on the hard ground hadn't helped much except to give me a back ache.

The last hours we had in our paradise, we decided to hang out in our rental house. It sounded boring, but we wanted to relax our sore muscles from the previous day.

We threw a frisbee around...

...and then we finished up our trip with a little more honeymooning.

We arrived back in Roaring Heights safely and drank in the sight of our beautiful city!

We unpacked, thanked Dyno for watching the house, called the security company to let them know we were home and got settled. I did enjoy the trip and wanted to go back some day, but there was just something about returning home.

I was hoping after we returned that I'd start feeling better, but I did not. It wasn't anything I could pinpoint, though. I never threw up or anything, so I just tried to ignore it.

We went out for lunch the next day and we talked as we drove to the restaurant.

“Justine?”

“Yeah, babe.” I took his hand and intertwined it with mine as he continued to look at the road.

“You said you wanted kids, right?” I almost didn't hear him. He was so quiet...almost like he was nervous.

“Yes! Of course I do! Why?”  My heart dropped a little.

“Because I've decided I'm ready when you are.”

Tears pooled in my eyes when he said that. I was not ready for that, but was thrilled!

“I am so very glad to hear that, Marvin, as I do have some news. I'm pregnant!”

As I said that last sentence, Marvin had just pulled into the restaurant's parking lot.  He quickly parked, turned off the car and looked at me.

“Really?!”  He had a huge sloppy grin on his face and his eyes were lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Well, I wasn't sure as I haven't been sick, but just had a funny feeling  However, I took a test this morning and it was positive.”

He was so excited and gave me a hug, which is tough to do in a car.  Then, we started making plans to turn the extra bedroom upstairs into a baby room.

Later, Marvin decided to add to our growing list of business partnerships. He added the Synergy business building, grocery store and movie theater to our collection. He said we wouldn't turn a profit real soon, but it was a good investment for our future. I agreed, though I was a little worried about the little money we had remaining.

I went to the local theater to do a cameo. I earned $5,000 and I was grateful. I knew this would help a lot towards the baby's room and came at the right time.

I got a call from Scot the next day who said Sophie had their baby. I quickly ran over to their house to visit.

“Woah, you have such a beautiful baby bump, Justine!”

I blushed and said thanks. “You look amazing, too, Sophie!” I gave her a big hug. “I've missed you! We really need to catch up, but for now, I want to see this beautiful new baby?”

They had a bouncing baby girl and named her Esmeraldo Macklamoor. She was such a cutie!

What a beautiful family!

Sophie asked if we could go out for a little while. She really needed a break and Scot said he'd take care of Esmeralda.  At the request of my best friend, I agreed quickly.

We went to the local cafe and just talked. It was nice as we hadn't seen each other since the wedding and I had missed spending time with another woman.  Then, I couldn't resist interrogating her and she couldn't resist feeling my baby bump. It was such a fun time!

When I got home, Marvin had some bad news. He said there was a rumor floating around that he got arrested. I was pretty upset, but he quickly calmed me down. I told him he needed to sue and he agreed. We didn't want to mess around and he left immediately for the courthouse.  I was very thankful that the courthouse was open 24 hours a day.

While I got ready for bed, I had many questions floating around my head. Who would do this? Why do people waste such precious time spreading rumors, whether true or not? Don't they have more important things to do? I took my bath and tried to relax, but got frustrated.

So, I quickly washed up and got out. When I got in bed, I wondered if he had enough proof to show he wasn't even in town during the incident. We had been on our honeymoon and not even in the country.

Thankfully, he came home shortly after I laid down and put my fear to rest. He won! The proof he had was enough. I felt such relief!! He only received $900 after all the costs, but it was worth it since our reputations were more important. Still, it was quite the battle and it left Marvin exhausted.

The next day, Marvin tried to hug me and was successful!  It was a challenge, though. He didn't seem to mind and lovingly rubbed my belly, too. What a sweetheart! It's always nice when the man you love doesn't say anything about how much weight you've gained, even if you are pregnant.

I had to work later, so I decided to enjoy the morning. It was so gorgeous out and I just couldn't stay inside.

Reluctantly, when it was time to get ready for work, I went back inside. I knew it would be a tough day, but I had to try to get through it. I'm not sure my boss liked his women police officers being pregnant. Sometimes I wanted to punch him.

By the end of my shift, I was quite stressed and tired. However, my boss asked if I would stay and help out since someone called in sick. I didn't know if I could, but said yes, anyway.  I needed to build up my promotion potential before the baby came. Unfortunately, the baby decided to come right then.

My boss was NOT happy. I told him I could have the baby at the station if he wanted me to or I could leave so he wouldn't have to deal with the mess. He got a look of horror on his face and shooed me out quickly after that.

I went straight home to Marvin. I knew with our classes that we'd taken, he'd be able to help me the most. However, by the time I got home, it was just too late for me to get to the hospital. So, I just weathered the storm there. It was very painful and no one was really helping me since they kept freaking out.

In between the waves of pain, I would watch Marvin and he had some funny faces!  It was kind of nice to have a little bit of a stress reliever.

Finally, the time had come.

Would it be a boy or a girl? Tune in next time to find out.

*lovesstorm's notes*

Whew! I hope you didn't notice I rushed this chapter a little. I am just trying to get this generation to go a little faster. :) I don't think Justine wants to us to move on.  She must like us!  ;)

I didn't take a ton of pictures on the honeymoon. I'm not sure why as I can't remember now. However, you get the gist of what they did. I thought it was really funny that she just took out her sleeping bag and started sleeping right where she did. It reminded me of her Uni days. :D

Ugh and I completely forgot about Sophie & Scot. So, when I finally did go over there to see what was going on, their baby was already a toddler. LOL! So, I had to make a baby and take some photos. :) My bad. I know I could have gone back a few saves, but I didn't want to wait for the games to load. It was just easier to create the baby for pics, then not save. ;)

As for Justine's pregnancy, it was a glitchy nightmare. I heard the chimes after they tried for a baby. However, a sim day went by and NOTHING happened. She didn't receive a moodlet, she didn't get sick, and didn't receive the cute little baby bump.  I kept trying to get them to try for baby because I wasn't sure what was going on, but I never got chimes again.  So, when she got the baby bump, I finally knew she was pregnant. So, there may be a picture here and there where she should have a smaller baby bump, but she never did.  :(

However, because she still didn't have the moodlet, the stupid game kept sending her to work. So, that's why she started having the baby at the station. When she walked out of the station in labor, the game popped up with this message:

“You left early, which means you left the boss in bad shape. That's not a smart move on your part. You should think these things through in the future.”

I laughed so hard, but felt bad for Justine, too, because it's a wishacy. I still have to follow her needs, so it was tough since she still had to work. We made it through, though!  ;)

Vacation Home in China

ChinaRed Dragon by NNNsims2

Poses

Loretta– Skylar

Bundle of Joy – Spladoum

Meet Marvin Johnson