Wrinkled Thoughts

My good friend Myke is getting up in years… He turned 40 years old on March 1st and celebrated by purchasing an RV! … and for his maiden voyage, he drove it up to my house from Phoenix. I won't get into detail about his first RV road trip, but let me just say two words: "Beached Whale". Yup, he got himself beached at Lake Powell in the middle of the night which resulted in about a 9 hour delay on his arrival to my house. He did make it though.

While Myke and his kids Zoe and Nolan were here, we all went up to Brighton to have a blast snowboarding. Myke was feeling adventurous at the ripe old age of 40 and decided to try and snowboard. His kids seemed to pick it up much faster than he, so he resorted back to his favorite hobby of taking pictures of his kids. Here's some of his photos (and a few of mine) for your viewing pleasure. 

There is a new sign up at the Chipotle in Salt Lake! From an earlier post, you saw the "SOON" sign I took a picture of. Well, they've put a new sign in the window while they remodel the building. Check it.

While I was at it, I took a picture through the front door of the "burritofication" process. This building is HUGE. It appears that it needs a new floor… 

You know I'll keep you posted on it's progress.

In the interest of Internet Harmony and the shameless marketing of the websites I have designed over the years, I have created this page as a launch pad for search engine spiders.

 … Oh, and it is a gallery of sorts if you want to see what I'm up to now and then.

- www.scoreguardian.com - Score Guardian is the best CRM tool for the mortgage industry.  It allows Loan Officers to track and maintain a client base.

- www.heartfeltadopt.com - The Utah Adoption Agency that will help us find our baby girl. Look for my picture.

- www.prosecurityproducts.com - Another client in Utah! These guys are a locksmith and security specialist shop rolled into one.

- www.cutathome.com - In the scrapbooking capital of the world (Utah), how can you go wrong? This is huge online scrapbooking supply store that I developed. 

- www.hannaganmeadow.com - My mom and dad's home in the White Mountains of Eastern Arizona. An old hunter's lodge with rooms to rent as well as cabins. 22 miles away from everything else on the planet. Look for my picture on this site too.

- www.sixrealbrothers.com - The most talented group of SIX brothers you will ever have the pleasure of watching perform. They are currently performing in Branson Missouri.

- www.bajabushpilots.com - If you ever need to skip town and go south of the border to Mexico, these are the guys who can get you there and back safely. The green interface is less than desirable, but that's what they wanted. Besides, it's the GUTS of the site that really count. 

Here's a few sites I threw together for my good friend Cam Stewart, who always buys me a Chile Relleno from Mi Amigo's when I am down in Phoenix. He owns Tower Printing and Tactix Design in Mesa Arizona. All of these sites were graphically designed by Cam's team, but I put the code together to make them web pages.

- www.foresightaz.com - For all your home automation, entertainment and security needs. 

- www.montevistaresort.com - Old folks retirement resort in Mesa Arizona

- www.betteratm.com - Makes your ATM machine "better". I did the awesome butterfly animation… sweeeet.

- www.taxque.com - For all your tax needs.

- www.thorpesurgical.com - Go here to get your teeth fixed.

I have developed quite a few more sites over the years, but these are the only sites that deserve any mention at this time. Come back often to see if I've added anything to the list. 

… That's what my friend Myke called it when I told him Chipotle was FINALLY building a few locations inside the state of Utah. I actually emailed the Chipotle Corporation a few weeks back and asked them when they were building in Utah. I was told the first location will be in West Bountiful and will open in May. That's only about 20 miles from my house… never too far for a Chipotle Burrito.

… And then I went to lunch with my grandfather today, just like I always do. We were sitting in his favorite "soup joint" (Paradise Bakery) when I looked out of the window and saw the most BEAUTIFUL site accross the street! (See photo). I told my grandfather we are going to have come to Paradise to get his soup and then I'd have to run accross the street and get a burrito.

Yes, call it glee… I can now live in Utah in peace. I will finally have a decent "mexican" joint to eat at. Whew! I was beginning to wonder there for awhile.

BTW, Chipotle has a killer website. You really must visit if you've never seen it.

Grandma Jackie likes to fly her grandchildren down to Arizona for their birthday… so she can spoil the snot out of them for a few days. Normally, Sage goes with the child… but this time Avery didn't think his mom was "cool" enough to go with him… So I went!

We didn't do a whole lot. Avery hung out with his grandma while I worked and visited my friend Myke. I did get to stay a few nights with my brother Tyler and my sister-in-law Teresa. It was a nice break from the CRAPPY food in Utah. Mexican food in Arizona is the best. Utah mexican food sucks… although, I did hear a rumor that Chipotle was going to FINALLY build a few locations in Salt Lake. My prayers might be answered. I went to Chipotle 3 times while I was in Phoenix. I even got a FREE t-shirt for being there during a promotion! Sweet.

Avery and I did have one fun day with Myke and his daughter Zoe. We hiked the Siphon Draw trail at the Supersition Mountains. If I had a nickel for every picture I have of Avery and Zoe, I'd be rich. They've know eachother since birth and will probably end up getting married.

Here's a few shots of our trip:

Yes folks, I procrastinated a few things over the last few months… And now I'm here to make ammends. In the following post you will be updated on everything from Halloween to "the flood" to Christmas to my new remodeling project… So sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Halloween 2006 and Ethan's 8th Birthday! 

My second born son Ethan turned 8 on Halloween 2006. I've already blogged his baptism, but failed to blog the trip to Arizona we took to celebrate.

The trip to Arizona was special in many ways… #1 we took "Monkey" along with us. I won't say his name for his privacy, but for those of you who didn't meet him, Monkey was the foster child we had in our home for 8 months. See my "rants" category to see how that turned out for us. He appears in one or two of the pictures below… see if you can find him.

We stayed at Grandma Jackie's while we were in the valley of the sun. As you can see, we hacked up a few pumpkins for Halloween… and you can see my children new they were back in Phoenix and decided to "dress the part" by reverting back to their old ways and wearing nothing but their underwear.

Hannagan Meadow - on the way home:

On the way home from Phoenix, we stopped by the Hannagan Meadow Lodge where my parents are the Innkeepers. On the way up, we picked up "another pathetic lifeform" in the Showlow K-Mart parking lot. I actually got the pleasure of naming her - Agatha. Yup, Sage wanted a "brown puppy" for her 32nd birthday and wouldn't you know it!? We found her. Now Toby has a friend to beat on when he gets bored. Actually she is bigger than him in every way (including crap size) EXCEPT height. She has short little stubby legs and Toby has long legs.

The Flood…

I decided to flood my basement in December by not shutting off the main valve to my sprinkler system out by the street. We had Niagra Falls coming through our window before I was able to locate the valve under the snow and shut it off. I also had trouble finding the "tool" to shut off the valve. Neeldess to say, there was a TON of water in our basement. The neighbor across the street helped me suck 60 gallons of water out of the window well… and then we had the professionals come in and take care of the rest. Sage and I had to hustle and move all the furniture (entertainment center included) before the flood waters ruined them.

Cleanup took about a week … 3 days of 10 fans and 2 de-humidifiers at about 100 decibles was the worst part. Thank goodness for insurance! Speaking of insurance… the adjuster who came out went to the same high school as me! Only he graduated a year earlier. Small world.

Christmas - 2006:

Christmas was a smaller event this year… mostly because the house was torn up something fierce (see next section below). However, the kids got something that they wanted and DAD got his XBox 360. Mom thought she would be funny and give them all a gag gift of Barbie or Ken… The twins actually fought over who was going to keep Barbie. Should I be worried?

Ian was down for a visit and went skiing with Avery and me. He even helped put up some drywall and rewire my light switch. Good times! Skiing was awesome at night up at Brighton Ski Resort. Here's some goofy photos to prove it.

Before Christmas, we decided to have a family home evening to build "ginger bread" houses… except ours were made from graham crackers. My first attempt was an example of poor engineering… the candy was too heavy for the joist hangers (frosting) and the whole thing caved in (me crying). The boys loved it… hopefully, next year we can improve on our designs. And maybe my children will have some clothes on!

The "Project":

Sometime (shortly) after the flood, we decided we hated the fire place (and a few walls) in the back room by the kitchen… So we tore it out. It took me 3 days to A) Sledge hammer B) Hammer Drill and C) Jack hammer out all the bricks and concrete that went into building the fire place. WHAT A PAIN. The walls came down a bit easier, and really opened up the space. We also ripped out the boring tile in the kitchen, as well as a row of cabinets (that are now in the garage) that were taking up waaaay too much space in the kitchen.

After the drywall was put back in place with about 7 gallons of mud (seriously) and the walls were painted, I laid about 1000 sq ft of Pergo "Hand Scratched Hickory" flooring upstairs… since Sage is "anti carpet". It looks awesome if I do say so myself. The final touches were new baseboards, a big mirror and some furniture (a couch and chair).

Here's a few "before" shots… for those of you wondering… These were actually taken before we bought the house, way back in July of 2005.

Welcome to the new and improved VonWrinkle.com!

For those of you looking for pictures of our baby girl, Maya - click here . There are two posts all about her in my "Exciting Times " category. 

These pages, thoughts, photos, videos and memories are designed to catalog my life for future generations… A sort of "Public Journal" if you will. (If you want to see my most recent posts, click here .)

Why? Because I'm a slacker and haven't written a lick of anything about my life, thoughts, and feelings in any journal or diary. How are my great, great, great grandkids ever going to know who I was? And why should they care unless I provide them with a "colorful" history?

Being the web developer that I am, I figured there isn't any better way than to do it online… and I might just update it once in awhile too.

I added a new page to my site that displays links to all of the websites I've been working on recently. 

Cheers.

Stephen Service

As many of you know, I go and visit my 98-year-old grandfather once a week and take him to lunch. His favorite place is the Pardise Cafe and Bakery - specifically, the Fire Roasted Tomato soup.

I usually call him around 10:30am on Wednesday mornings to see if he is home and ready to go to lunch. I'm usually at his house 30 minutes later so we can beat the crowd. Last Wednesday I called him on my cell phone in the car around 10:40am and he answered "all ready to go!". I must have flown on the freeway because I was walking through his door 10 minutes later.

I usually let myself in and yell from the door something like "Yyyello!"… Usually, he walks around the corner ready to put his coat on. This time I didn't hear anything from him, so I continued on into his living room to find him SOUND ASLEEP in his special rocking chair. Here's the picture to prove it. Actually, I took several pictures with my cell phone… this is just the best one. During my "photo session" the clock on the wall - not 12 feet from his head struck eleven. Any one who has tried to sleep in his house knows this clock well. It wakes the dead… but not grandpa. He slept right through it.

At this point I checked to make sure he was still alive… and he was, breathing deep and sleeping like a baby. I thought about what to do next. I decided to go back to the kitchen door and pretend like I just arrived - only this time I was going to be LOUDER as I entered. I slammed the door and yelled out "YYYYELLLOW!" … and walked back into the living room. ZZZ  ZZZZ ZZZZ….

After a little chuckle I stood there and called out, "You awake!"… "Yup", he says, like he's been sitting there waiting for me the whole time. Then he jumped up as usual and off we went… and he was none the wiser.

That reminds me… I added another "special" Hollyism to my ongoing blog about the many funny things he says. Go and check it out here.

Yes, our second born son Ethan has been baptized!

First off, I would like to thank the MANY family and friends who came to Utah to see the blessed event. It was a truly wonderful experience for Ethan to have you all around.

The baptism itself was one of the most spiritual baptisms I have ever been apart of. Grandpa Service (Craig) and Uncle Ian both gave wonderful talks from the heart. Grandma Service (Diane) played the piano, and I was able to baptize and confirm my son. The whole room was full of friends and family from all over. The confirmation circle was huge… I thought we were going to push Ethan and the chair into the floor.

Afterward, everyone came over (and filled the house) for dessert. Desserts of ALL kinds filled the kitchen, all made with love from my family in Odgen… except for the BEST raspberry concoction my Aunt Linda made. I only had 4 pieces.

Here's a few shots of the "after party".

As I stated earlier in the post, I had my ENTIRE family in town at my house for the weekend. It was a blessed weekend. Since we were all together, we actually planned ahead and family pictures taken at Wheeler Farm. Here's a "preview" of what the REAL photos MIGHT look like… I'll post tthe real photos here when we get them. It was the first time we have ALL been together in about 2 1/2 years.

Another treat was having my Grandmother Cogdill (my mom's mom) and my Grandpa Ben down with us. They parked their large RV on the side of my house and stayed for a few nights. On Sunday, my mother made a FANTASTIC "pre" Thanksgiving dinner and we all pigged out. We had to borrow a few tables and 16 chairs from the church to make sure we had enough seats for all of us. While my Grandmother was here, we snapped this photo of 4 generations of girls… Great Grandma, Grandma, Momma (Holly), and baby McKenzie.

… and while we were together, I hired my father, brothers, and brother-in-law (for free) to help me FINALLY build my deck on the back of the house. With my father manning the saw and the rest of us watching… er screwing down boards, we knocked it out pretty quick. We used most of the old wood from the old sun room that was on the back of my house (that I tore off last May) so I was able to put in a GREAT DECK for about an 1/8th of the cost of a brand new deck.

Half way through, my dad said something to the effect, "Man, I wish I started a construction company with all these boys I have around". I don't know about that… some of us still subscribe to the threat he all gave us as children: "If you ever pick up a hammer, I'll break your arm." - You could tell we didn't know the first thing about hammering a nail… but we sure could drive a screw with the screw gun! It snowed before I could get decent shot of the finished product, but I will post one just as soon as it melts.

It was a fun weekend… everything from playing scrabble, to staying up late and talking, to dinner at Johnny Carino's, to ice skating downtown, to riding the Trax train was all good times. I'm sure it will be something we all remember fondly. Can't wait for the next big get-to-gether! … maybe I'll put that addition on my house!

I sent the following letter out as an email to my family regarding the HORRIBLE experience we just had with the Utah Foster Care system. Instead of rewriting it for my blog, I decided just to paste it in. Names have been changed to protect the innocent… especially the child who was in our care. That child's name has been changed  to "Monkey" because that was his nickname.

——————————————————— 

Family,
 
Some of you already know that Monkey is no longer with us… which is a good thing. We wanted him to transition to a home that was willing to adopt him. We wanted this process to start in September and be completed by now. It was supposed to be a slow healthy transition for him.
 
However, we have become more and more frustrated with the way the case has been handled. We have often felt strong-armed into adopting him and have never felt like they were working to transition him to a better home.
 
Turns out, our feelings were right.
 
In the following account, I say "the state" a lot. When I say "the state" I am merely generalizing and grouping the many case workers, managers and supervisors into one group. As much as we would like to place a little blame somewhere specific, the fact of the matter is that A LOT of bad communication between many different entities in the system lead to the circumstances I am describing below. Needless to say, everyone involved has learned a serious lesson about human feelings, emotions, passions and effectively communicating such human qualities.
 
After you were all here for Ethan's baptism Thanksgiving came and we took Monkey to Brent and Larry's. That 6 hour experience was absolutely terrible for me (Steve) and Monkey. It was a build up from all the stress he have been under the last month including everyone's visit etc. Friday after Thanksgiving, amidst the chaos in the house and the stress of getting the house and new deck prepared for winter (as well as lingering Christmas) I had come to the end of my rope. Sage, being the loving wife she is, could sense my frustration and decided to take advantage of the respite the state had offered us a few weeks prior.
 
I'm not sure if you recall, but Monkey spent the weekend prior to Ethan's baptism with a "prospective" adoptive family to take him for a "test drive". Little did we know, the state lied to us about that respite time. In no way shape or form was that family even considering adoption. In the mean time, leading up to the hearing today (more on that below) the state told us to give them a call if we needed another break. Sage quickly replied that it would have been a WONDERFUL thing to have some respite when you were all going to be here for the baptism. That would have been one less stress on us. However, the state was unable to get it together for that weekend, and so you all got to meet him.
 
When Sage called to ask for respite last Friday, she was requesting two nights. We wanted to pick him up after church on Sunday. However, the state called on Saturday and told us to wait until Monday before we went to pick him up, and that they would call us. 3:30pm on Monday, Sage finally calls the state to find out what the heck is going on, because on Tuesday Monkey had an appointment (in our home) to be tested to see if he could qualify for special services offered by the school districts. Sage was told to hold off on picking him up yet again.
 
By now we started to realize something was going wrong. I (Steve) had enough and called Monkey's case worker, who was surprised to hear that he was even in respite care. She said she would get to the bottom of it and assured us we would pick him up in time for his 2:00pm appointment on Tuesday. At 1:55pm on Tuesday, the evaluator from the school district shows up at our house. Sage was frantically running around making phone calls while this poor lady had to sit and wait to see if she was even going to have a chance to evaluate him. The state finally told Sage to take the evaluator to the place where Monkey was staying… and that Sage could take Monkey home after the evaluation. Sage had to jump in the car in the middle of a  snow storm and have the evaluator follow her to the respite provider's home The whole time, Sage was fielding phone calls on her cell phone from different people with the state telling her different things. At one point she was asked if she really wanted to keep Monkey. Her answer was of course, "Yes", but she then told the state to please call Monkey's personal therapist and get her opinion on the matter. Monkey's therapist is a wonderful lady who Monkey trusts and she is also one of very few people who are intimate with the case.
 
At the respite providers home… who incidentally, was only babysitting temporarily for the REAL respite provider, so now Monkey has been bounced between two different homes in three days… Anyway, the evaluator does her thing, and because Monkey is so freaked out and confused, he fails the tests and ends up qualifying for services with the school district. That is about the only bright spot in the story. Sage says Monkey had perked up with her presence there and he was happy and ready to come home. As soon as she started to gather his things, she got the final phone call from our RFC (Resource Family Consultant) telling her that Monkey is no longer our foster child and that she needs to leave him with the respite provider. Sage was told that the state had talked to his therapist and that they were making the decision based off of what she said. Now, "on the fly" Sage was forced to consol Monkey, say good-bye and try to tell him he was getting a new mommy - all in a stranger's home. Needless to say, that little boy got DESTROYED when he realized he wasn't coming home. He was so upset he was uncontrollably shaking and crying.
 
One other thing our RFC told Sage was that we were supposed to go to Monkey's scheduled therapy appointment at 2:00pm the following day (Wednesday) with his wonderful therapist so we could give him all of his things and have a "good-bye session" with him for closure. We were skeptical.
 
We spent all of Tuesday night putting together a binder with all the photos we had of him. We wrote captions explaining everything that was going on in the photos. We wrote him a good-bye letter that he could read when he gets a little older. I put all the video we shot of him and all of his photos onto a DVD with music and the whole nine yards. We gathered the rest of his clothes, tricycle, car seat and toys so we could give them to him on  Wednesday. I was sick and tired of the emotional mis-communicating phone calls and wrote the first of several scathing emails (to put everything in black and white - not to mention creating a paper trail) to everyone involved with the case. We didn't sleep.
 
Sage and I both went to the therapy appointment to say good-bye. We were waiting in the lobby for the therapist when the respite provider showed up with him. She didn't know why she was there other than she was told to do so. Monkey acted like he hated us. He clung to her like a baby monkey. Being is foster parents for so long, we knew why he was acting that way… we was just destroyed by Sage the night before. We found out he didn't sleep Tuesday night, and he looked it. He was in a terrible state. Finally, his therapist walked into the lobby and sat down next to us and watched the interaction between all of us… not saying a word. Finally, after about 10 minutes, she asked us, "Why are you here?".
 
It turns out, there was a message from the state on her voicemail that she hadn't had time to check yet. Regardless, the state lied to us when they said they acted on HER RECOMMENDATION. When she came out to meet us she HAD NO IDEA what had transpired and certainly wasn't prepared to have a "good-bye" closure session with us. You should have heard the gasps and see the faces of not only the respite provider, but of the ladies behind the desk of The Children's Center where all of his therapy takes place. We attempted to have a "session" with them, but ended up leaving because Sage was so upset at seeing the pain Monkey was in. Later that the day Monkey's therapist called to let us know how WRONGED Monkey had been and that he should have never been removed from our care.
 
I wrote a couple more *nice* emails and even received some ridiculous replies from the state. These replies weren't answering any of our questions and forced us to pull out the "Foster Parents Due Process" card. To read about what our rights are as foster parents in regards to Monkey's removal, please read this website: http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r512/r512-031.htm - it enlightened us.
 
That brings us to the "permanency hearing" today. This hearing was scheduled to let a judge decide if the state's case is strong enough to go ahead with the "termination hearing". We already had such a hearing back in September and the case was postponed until today. Well, today we found out that the state's case is an ABSOLUTE JOKE. The judge ordered the termination hearing for February 1st, BUT ALSO ordered a different type of hearing (I forget the name) to be combined with the termination hearing so the defense can rebut the state's evidence (or lack thereof) and even submit more evidence. Then the judge also ordered a "formal kinship report" for Monkey's aunt because the state messed up the first one. That report has to be filed by mid-December. Basically, that means Monkey's aunt gets a second chance at fostering/adopting the kids because the state didn't handle it right the first time around.
 
The kicker about today's hearing is the fact that Sage and I have been saying all along that this case wasn't going to be decided today - November 30th… but EVERYONE we have talked to with the state has ADAMANTLY said, "Oh, the parent's will definitely get their rights severed on the 30th". In fact, after the first hearing in September is when we finally decided we couldn't adopt Monkey… and the number one reason was that this case was FUBAR and it was going to continue to be FUBAR no matter what the state said. They all thought, we didn't want to adopt him because of his behavior. That had something to do with it, but it was far down the list of reasons.
 
Now that I have all your blood pressures at above normal levels, here's what is going to happen… or at least what we hope is going to happen.
 
We wanted Monkey to move on… that was no secret. We are just severely sad at how he was removed… not sad for us, but for him. This isn't how it was supposed to go down. On the other hand, we are GLAD he was removed because we were right… this case is going to drag on for months, maybe even years… and there is no way we could have survived him that long. Our goal was to have him transitioned by Christmas… well, we got that wish.
 
However, because we are so passionate about the injustice that occurred, we aren't giving up on him. If you read the "Foster Parents Due Process" law, you know we have the right to some repercussion. We have offered the state a way to resolve this without having to go through the painful process of "Due Process". The ball is in their court. The great thing about our right to due process is the fact the we don't want to push the issue for OUR SAKES. We don't want him back. If we end up going through the whole process it will be as a voice for Monkey. His story will be recorded as part of the process for the betterment of future foster children, foster parents, and the people who work for the state. It will take his case to an administrative level ABOVE the managing fiasco we saw this week. Let's hope the state steps up. We will be fine either way… as long as the state fesses up to the way Monkey was wrongly disrupted and actually does something about it - to our satisfaction.
 
This story is far from over… we are waiting to see what action the state takes.
 
Oh, and incase you think this story is crazy, out of the ordinary, or even extreme… This is a NORMAL OCCURRENCE in foster care. It happens all the time. It sucks, and we aim to make it better.
  
… Now bring on that baby girl!
 
Love, Steve and Sage