cursor appearance

I have all four games of the Sims 3; Last week while I was playing the game after shopping at the store, and after loading some updated lots for Fort Sims, that fort sims creator had designed, my cursor began to go haywire. It had these sqiggly lines surrounding it and my game crashed. I had read on the forum where some people had problems with Fort Sim after installing Ambitions. I teasted Sunset Valley and River View and Mesa Valley and had the same problem. So I put my fort sim town in the trash can and deleted the new lots, and then play tested sunset valey , river view and mesa valley and all is well but now I notice that my cursor is accompanied by a pair of foot prints or a spoked wheel like- thing depending on what I am pointing at. Is this a new thing or have I been so focused on the game that I failed to notice the additions to the cursor with Sims 3 then WA, HEL and now Ambitions? I hope I don't have to reinstall my games, there has some annoying glitches with Ambitions that I am certain you are all aware of and working on. I would appreciate your reply and any help you have. By the way I have a new computer that far exceeds the requirements of the game and the game was going well until ambitions and the new patch.
Thank you.