Chapter 1: Life Never Gives You A Heads Up That It Ripped Up Those Plans You Made

The founding sim for this challenge is Lesley Diarmid, a fitness freak who is also passionate about animals and has been called an animal whisperer all her life. Her dream has always been to found her own sanctuary for endangered creatures. She was briefly married to Benny a poor medical student, with a habit of selling parts of himself to research facilities to fund his dream of becoming a doctor.

Here they are in their tiny, run down, starter home in Appaloosa Plains.

You can tell right? It just wasn't meant to be. We all know young love doesn't need shag pile carpets and French handmade flock wallpaper to thrive. Young love can easily make do with that dirty, cracked faux-crocodile two seater couch as hard as a bag of hammers. But since embracing the student life, Benny repeatedly stunned Lesley with his complete lack of personal hygiene.

Sometimes she nearly passed out from trying not to breathe when she was sat next to him. Plus, he had an out of control coffee addiction that meant he was on a caffeine high taller than the Empire State Building at all times. Sure, medical students are prone to caffeine abuse, they work long hours. But it was all he could talk about - his next cup of joe.

And so it was that they went their separate ways. Lesley kept the house, it wasn't much of a prize. Benny went to house sit for a rancher who was overseas. And shortly thereafter life threw one of its notorious curve balls and Lesley found she was pregnant. It must have happened when Benny fell into that vat of diluted bleach at the lab that one time and came home drenched but smelling....almost good. Just thinking about him brought on a bout of her OCD and Lesley had to wash her hands seven times before she could leave the house.

Single, pregnant, unemployed, with a house to maintain and a mortgage to pay, Lesley suddenly found herself broke and desperate. With a baby on the way she had to think of a way to earn money fast. Benny had told her about a resident doctor at the hospital who did a lucrative trade on the side in exotic birds, mammals and snakes. His name was Gavin Pinkerton and she offered her services as a talented animal whisperer to capture and sell to him animals to order.

Thus Lesley began earning pretty good money as an animal wrangler. It kept her fit roaming the hills around Appaloosa Plains and it allowed her to do up the house a little. But she was torn - catching and selling animals on to dealers didn't sit well with her ethically, but she needed the money for her unborn child.

Her pregnancy was uneventful and she stayed fit and active until the very end. The birth, however, was a different story.

 

Lesley went into labour miles from anywhere, up the side of a mountain scouting for falcon and chinchilla. The light was quickly fading, it was a Full Moon and so she knew all kinds of weirdies would be out when darkness fell. She had to get down off that mountain somehow. But the labour pains quickly became more intense and she could not walk very well. It was like a nightmare. She couldn't believe she was so far from anywhere and would have to give birth where she stood. She thought she would die. And at that moment death would have been a welcome release from the fear and agony she was going through.

But Lesley didn't die. And her son Luke-Hans was born, healthy and safe.

They didn't have much. But they had each other.

Lesley started a veggie plot to save money and give them fresh, healthy food. And as the years went by they furnished the place with secondhand finds.

 But Lesley noticed that Luke-Hans was a quiet, lonely, withdrawn child.

 He would sit for hours in the house by himself, lost in his own world. Lesley worried that he would never make a friend or go to birthday parties or have fun at the pool or beach. On top of that, Luke-Hans' Dad was never around. Lesley had seen him out partying with Benni Hennessey and they were known socially as the Badass Bennies, they were at every club, dive bar and gin joint in town. Lesley decided to ask Dr Pinkerton's advice. He suggested adoption and put her in touch with an agency in town.  There were many orphaned and abandoned children in Appaloosa Plains she discovered, all they needed was a home and some love.

That was how she came to adopt a boy just a year younger than Luke-Hans. Jethro became Jethro Diarmid, her new son and a brother for Luke-Hans. Surely now they would be a happy family and be able to do all kinds of things together?

Coming Soon....Lesley expands the house and tries really hard to be a fun Mum.

Introductory Notes: Hello Simmers. I decided to blog about this challenge a few days after I started it. Consequently I only took a handful of pictures, not thinking about documenting it. The founding sim's children have now just reached teenhood, so this is a kind of hacked together brief introduction with weird random pictures. Hopefully things will be more organised from here out.