Happy Memorial Day

Thought of my dad this morning but he is to far away to visit. I know because he is in a Veterans cemetary that they put flags on all the graves today. Thought of a lot of people who have left this world and missed them! Then we did what people do on Memorial day weekend, we went boating. We didn't have a barbeque though. (Art pointed that out).

David, Don and Sean. David's friends Buddy and Jorie. It was overcast but warm. None of us went in the lake but there were brave souls swimming and water skiing.

Sean loved swimming. The pool was warm.

Squirt gun wars. Actually they were sitting in the hot tub squirting each other with hot water so no one really cared.

No Show

Here's a shocker! We went to McDonalds at noon for Ryan's scheduled visit with Sean and he didn't show up. We waited 45 minutes. Sean had fun playing on the slide. I guess Ryan didn't really want his Utes hat after all. I tried to call him but his phone had a message saying it was broken and not to leave a message. The McDonalds is about 5 blocks away from where he lives, or lived, I know they got three notice to evict papers so I'm not sure if he actually left. I imagine he is squatting.  What a sad life. He hasn't seen Sean in over five weeks and he couldn't get out of bed by noon and walk five blocks. It's all good from my perspective I didn't want to talk to him and we didn't tell Sean he was coming so he wasn't disapointed.

Why I don’t watch reality TV

I don’t watch it on TV because I have front row seats to the live show. The Jenny and Ryan show is a cross between girls gone bad and an episode of Jerry Springer.

I went to court on Thursday to listen to Jenny’s preliminary hearing. I had decided not to go but at the last minute felt compelled. I had to sit through five or six episodes of other people’s ghetto lives before Jenny’s came on. There was the shackled lady who pawned a computer stolen in a robbery. I loved it when the defense attorney said the drivers license she used to identify herself at the pawn shop should be inadmissible as evidence because it was hear say. What the crap! Hear say? That made me chuckle. Then there was the lady who tried to pass off forged American Express checks at Wal-Mart. She came to court in her bedroom slippers. I thought that was a nice touch. There were a couple of Hispanics in hand cuffs and shackles who waived their rights to a preliminary hearing through a translator. There was a very normal well dressed looking lady who pleads guilty to communications fraud. (Actually would have liked to hear that story.) The last opener was a pimp looking dude who was charged with violating a protective order. (I took a potty break during that episode).

Jenny came out wearing her tan scrubs, orange tennis shoes, hand cuffs and shackles. Not really a good look for anyone but she really didn’t look bad. Her hair was curly, she stood up straight, she didn’t mutter when she was talking to the judge and she seemed confident. She didn’t know I was there. She plead guilty to a class A misdemeanor of attempted aggravated assault. I suppose that means she missed when she through the brick at him. The attorney explained to the judge that she was with the father of her baby (and which baby would that be) and they were drunk and fighting. He further explained that whenever she and her boyfriend with whom she cohabitated got together they got drunk and beat each other up. “Boyfriend,” “father of baby,” are those court euphemisms for “married.” The judge then explained to Jenny that there was a no contact order in place which meant no texting, no writing, no seeing other, no sending messages, and no calls. He asked if she understood. She said yes. He dismissed her and said she could be released to pretrial supervision with a decreased bail. As I was leaving Jenny looked over her shoulder She saw me, we made eye contact and I left. I know she was looking for Ryan.

She started calling Friday at 6:45 am. I turned the phone off and left for work. In the afternoon Ryan texted asking me to give him $150 for bail and he would pay me back that evening. Later in the evening he asked for $100 for bail and said he would pay me back Monday. I didn’t respond to either. This afternoon a bail bondsman called and asked if I was Jennifer’s mother. I said no, what do you want. He said he wanted me to pay $200 to bail her out and then sign papers guaranteeing she would show up for court. I declined. I texted Ryan because ignoring him didn’t get the message across and told him I wasn’t bailing Jenny out.
As strange as it seems I actually feel a little bad about not bailing her out. It’s the same kind of bad I feel when I pass a pan handler and don’t give them money. I have no reason to bail her out. I didn’t put her in jail. No one in her family will bail her out. I told Don I felt guilty because I could easily pay the money, Don gave me perspective by saying there was an entire jail full of people who would love to have me bail them out and did I fell badly about them too. Those two have no boundaries as it is. I know once she gets out she will be asking to stay with me and that’s not going to happen either.

Ryan texted on Wed and asked to see Sean and if I would bring him his Utes hat. (Sean has it in his toy box.) WHAT, your wife is in jail, you’ve lost your kids to DCFS, you’ve been evicted from your house, you have no job and you’re worried about a stupid hat? Fine, I’ll bring your hat! I told him I would meet him at the downtown McDonalds on Sunday at 12. Hopefully, he won’t show. He was supposed to go see the girls today at 11 but called Sabrina extremely impaired at 7 am saying he didn’t have a ride. He said his dad had gone camping two days ago and hadn’t come back and was supposed to give him money for working. He said Jenny had called him and yelled at him for not pawning the couch they stole from Rent A Center. (Would that be legal?) He said he knew there is a no contact order but he just loves her so much.

Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of Salt Lake Ghetto

Kumbaya my fish, kumbaya

One or two years ago Don bought a little Koi at PetCo. I thought it was an ugly little fish but Don liked its sparkly scales. The little fish grew and grew and became an ugly big fish. It reminded me of the children’s book “A fish out of water.” I thought I was going to have to move him to the bath tub. I planned to move him to my friend’s pond in July when the weather was warm.

I noticed about two nights ago that the fish which was probably eight inches long had grown even more. Soon it wasn’t going to be able to turn around in the tank. In retrospect it was probably a little fishy bowel obstruction from all the shrimp it was being fed.

Last night I got home from work at 10:30 and noticed Mr. Fish floating on his side, gasping. Not a good fish sign. I went upstairs and told Don his fish was in distress. A little while later AJ came upstairs and announced that Carpy the fish had passed away at 11:07. Now that’s a problem! You can’t flush a fish that’s big enough to filet.

Don still thinking of his trees took the fish outside and we had a midnight burial next to one of the Holly trees. I sang Kumbaya my fish and held a flashlight while Don dug a hole. None of the kids attended. They were all sleeping except for AJ who was too busy playing a computer game. Now we will see if the tree with the fish buried next to it grows faster than the rest of the trees.

Removing Mr Fish from the tank

Planting Mr. Fish

Sunday with the kids

While Don was planting trees I took Sean to see his sisters and his cousin Empress. We went to one of my least favorite places, Chuck e Cheese. The kids loved it. Then we went to the park. The girls look great, they are happy. Brie is relaxed. Sabrina is overwhelmed but who wouldn't be! They were all cute together and happy to see one another.

Not much to say about the day I just wanted to post the cute pictures.

I love the intensity of Sean's face in this picture. Kylie is such a girlie girl and Sean is such a boy. He can make a gun out of anything! I don't recall that he has ever had a toy gun. If he has a stick or anything long and skinny he shoots with it.

Sabrina and I really enjoyed the park much more than Chucks. There was a climbing wall and Kylie was climbing it like a monkey. Sean and Brie went up it too but they needed a lot of help where as Kylie could do it on her own.

Tree Obsession

My husband had been obsessed with trees as of late. In reality it is not the trees he has been obsessed with it is the McDonald’s on the other side of the frontage road. When we first moved into our house there were three HUGE willow trees in our neighbor’s yard. These trees really isolated us from the highway, the frontage road, the trailer park and the McDonalds. Our neighbor got tired of the trees because limbs were falling down and she CUT THEM DOWN! All of the sudden our isolated backyard started to feel like a median on the freeway. Well, perhaps that is an exaggeration but we are certainly exposed.

It seems like every picture taken in our backyard features the McDonalds sign and or the lovely mobile home park behind us. (I’ve been wondering why there are 3 foreclosures on our street. Maybe it has something to do with the McDonalds, the trailer park and the freeway. A couple of months ago they started building a new McDonalds next to the old McDonalds. This McDonalds is literally direct eye shot of our deck. Every time Don goes out in the backyard he glares at McDonalds and the freeway. He has been doing internet searches and talking to nurseries about trees. He finally decided on a fast growing Holly tree that is supposed to grow up to three feet a year. They stay green year round and get up to 20 feet tall. He had all 17 of them shipped Fed Ex from some far away state. They arrived in boxes on Friday and yesterday he planted them. They are supposed to be five feet but I think they are closer to four.

Don and Sean prepping the soil two weeks before he ordered the trees. Don did lots of research about how these trees need to be planted and cared for. Ever the analytical. I would have just thrown something in a hole and expected it to grow.

Sean helped with the tilling. Or at least he thought he helped with the tilling.

Note the McDonalds sign and the big brown soon to be McDonalds building in the background. You can even see the freeway signs if you look close.

Here they are 17 holly trees in a row lets hope they grow!

DCFS

The new DCFS worker for the girls called and wanted to talk about our relationship with Kylie and Brie. I made an appointment to talk face to face and Don and I met with the old and new worker at the DCFS building on Thursday. They wanted to know if we were interested in fostering and adopting the girls. The short answer to that question is no.

This question was asked because they were trying to decide where the girls should be placed. Sabrina has had the girls for 3 weeks and has struggled, both financially and emotionally. She loves the girls and wants to take care of them and raise them but she feels a huge amount of justifiable resentment to their parents. And, going from one child to three is very overwhelming. The girl’s caseworker called her and asked her if she was willing to adopt the girls if the parental rights were terminated. She felt like they were pushing her for an answer and said no. The worker then said they would place the girls in a foster to adopt home. Sabrina was devastated by this response and cried for two days. I was freaked out and spent hours sorting through two and a half years of pictures of the kids hoping who ever the girls went to live with would want them. And I kept thinking about Sean. If the girls went to live with a foster family would Sean not ever get to see them again? Sean loves his sisters and they love him.

Sabrina and I talked a lot about the girls and her family. Money is one aspect but lots of families are poor. I’m more concerned about her relationship with her nuclear family than her ability to support them financially. The girls are so happy with her. They are in school, they are clean, they eat, and they take dance classes. Brie is talking and laughing! She has not had any stomachaches. They don’t even ask about their parents. The question is does she have the emotional and physical energy to raise the girls because I know I don’t! In the end Sabrina decided she wants to go for it. She is looking at possibly keeping the girls long term. There is still the HUGE obstacle of the parents. They are already making life hard for Sabrina. She is expected to drive 30 miles to take the girls to meet with their dad. Their dad doesn’t want to give any money to support the girls. When Sabrina told him the state said he would have to pay her child support he said, “we will see about that, I will talk to the case worker.” I’m sure his not feeling any moral responsibility to support his children financially will endear him to DCFS as well.

Back to our meeting with the caseworkers. We told them we were not interested in adopting the girls and told the new caseworker that before they placed the girls in a foster home they should contact the Jensen’s. Then we talked about Don and my big concern, what about Sean? They said they had already talked to the attorney general about Sean and that he lived with us. They said if/when the parental rights are terminated for the girls they will petition to have their rights to Sean terminated at the same time and then we could adopt! This was a huge relief. And I see the girls either with Sabrina or the Jensen's for the long term so Sean will still have his sisters and I will have my "grandkids."

Visit to the Slammer

I’ve been debating whether or not to write about my visit to the jail on Saturday. I’ve decided the experience is not one I wish to repeat but it is worth remembering. The last phone call I accepted from Jenny she pleaded with me to come visit her in the jail. They are allowed three visitors per week and to the best of my knowledge with the exception of a visit from Ryan before the protective order was instituted and a visit from the DCFS worker no one else has visited.

For those of you who have never had the need to visit the jail I’ll explain how it works. You arrive 45 minutes before your planned visit. Prisoners are allowed two visits per week of up to three people. There visiting times are designated by the “pod” they are housed in. Jenny is in Pod B (maximum security) because she is being held for aggravated assault with potential for deadly force. (Yes, the deadly force was the brick). Her visiting days are Saturday and Monday. I left for the jail at 8:00 am thinking I could get into see her at 9:15 and be home by 10.

When I was walking up the ramp to the jail I couldn’t help but notice that the jail is Ugly, yes that’s a capital U. It looks like a large cinder block. There are no windows. They really need to reconsider their exterior and interior decorators!

I started people watching as soon as I got out of my car. I went into the visitor registration area and waited in line. There were a lot of cute Hispanic girls with babies there and there were some scary looking people but not so many. The people that made me sad were all the middle aged very “normal” very “Mormon” looking couples, no doubt waiting to see their kids with drug problems. I gave my driver’s license and the guard asked if I had ever been there before. They took my address and phone number then I was sent to the lobby to wait. I was sitting, waiting, wondering what the heck was going on when a very “normal” looking woman sat next to me. “Have you been her before?” I asked. She rolled her eyes and said “oh YES!” Not sure how to respond I said “I’m really sorry.” I asked her how things worked and she explained how the visits went. It was helpful. She also told me about her daughter the Sunbeam teacher from Kaysville who became addicted to meth after using it to lose weight. She had been a great teenager and had a terrific job which all went to hell with her addiction. She has now been arrested for theft, assault, prostitution, and distribution. There have been so many charges over a three year period that the mom can’t even keep track. Her husband, a nurse has been working three jobs to pay attorney fees. It was a tragic story. I suppose if I had talked to any of the other “normal” looking people in there they would have had similarly tragic stories. Talking to her did made the time go faster as I didn’t bring a book.

After spending a half an hour in the lobby they called for the 9:30 visitors. At this point we exchanged our driver’s license for a key and had to put EVERYTHING in a locker. They said you couldn’t even take tissue paper with you. (I hid my chap stick, no chap stick no visit!) We went through security screening and then sat in another room for 30 minutes. The woman I was talking to said this gives them enough time to check the visitors for warrants or felonies. If you have a warrant even for unpaid parking tickets they come and take you out of the holding room and arrest you. Fortunately I am warrant free. At 9:50 a guard came in the room and read off the names of all the prisoners being visited, you had to raise your hand when she called of the name of the person you were visiting. She then explained that we couldn’t swear or take our clothes off while we were there. Excellent advice!

At 10 a bell rang and we were sent down the hall to our visiting pods. Everyone else was going to pod C so I was on my own. I had to walk down a really long hall. As I was walking down the hall I remembered a story Kylie had told me of going to see her dad in jail on her 4th birthday. It went something like this. “I waited in a room for a long time then I walked down a really long hall and then the door made a noise and then another door made a noise and then we walked some more into a room and then a sound went clang and daddy sat down behind the window and I said HI DADDY! It was an accurate description. I went into door 8B and there were some metal stools and partitioned windows. I stood there wondering what’s next and a voice came out of the ceiling saying “she’s on her way.”

Jenny came in and we sat across from each other. There are no phones like on TV. You just talk through the window. Jenny looked horrible. She’s lost weight, her hair was greasy her face swollen. She just cried and said she wanted to get out; she wanted me to get her out. We talked about Ryan and she said he’s turned on her and is acting like everything is her fault. She told me she wasn’t a bad person and didn’t belong there and that she can’t believe she’s lost her kids and that her life has gone to hell. I mostly just listened. I asked her where she planned to go when she got out and she said to stay with her brother. I asked her if her brother knew that and she said yes. I don’t believe her. I told her the kids were safe and happy and that she needed to think about how she was going to get her life together. She didn’t say anything I hadn’t heard her say before. I don’t know if any real change is coming. She blames Ryan for everything. I said “you chose to go out drinking” and she said “I only drink with Ryan. I never drink without him.” I asked her about a story Ryan had told me about her last pregnancy and she said it was true. I reminded her that Ryan was in jail when this drinking event in question had occurred and she didn’t say anything.

I have tried for three years to help her but I don’t think there is anything I can do. Lack of parenting the foster care system and reactive attachment disorder have done irreparable damage. The visit made me feel bad but I have to have boundaries. I cannot justify paying $1800 bail to get her out. Half the bail is for charges that are 2, 3, and 4 years old. I tried to make her understand that this isn’t a one time event that this is a culmination of her life but she doesn’t see it. She doesn’t see anything, she’s not rationale she’s despondent and feels like the entire world has forsaken her. In a way I guess it has.

Sad life.

The Camera Culprit

I bought a new camera last week. The kids were running around the house taking pictures. Yes, it was stupid of me. I let a 2, 3 and 4 year old play with a new camera. Sean got his own child’s digital camera for Christmas and the stupid thing is too hard to use. (But my adult camera is not.) At some point in the afternoon I asked the girls “where’s my camera?” Brie said “oh” and promptly ran out to the sandbox, unburied my camera and returned it to me saying “it’s dirty.” The camera wouldn’t open and made a horrible noise. For some reason this annoyed me! I said “TIME OUT BRIE!” She said “Kylie did it.” Fine, I said “time out for both of you” and I put both their little noses up against the wall. Sean then announced that he had done it so I made him put his nose up against the wall too!

I was able to download the camera and low and behold I think the proof is in the last pictures. Note who is being photographed and the photographs of the photographer’s feet. If you still need a clue. Kylie was wearing plaid, purple pants on the day in question.

Sean and Nate being super silly. Sean spent the night at Nate’s last night. He was just insistent that he go. He thinks he is so big.

Custody Change

The state took custody of the girls from their parents. It’s kind of surreal. When I think of all that has happened over the past 30 months I am amazed that it has taken this long. I guess when the mom goes to jail the state decides it’s time to take a serious look and really talk to people. I still have the girls but tomorrow afternoon I am taking them to their Aunt Sabrina’s. Yes, the state asked me if I wanted to keep them but we honestly do not have the energy for two more kids. Heather was willing to take them but really wants something more permanent. Of course the other option was whoever the foster care system put them with which none of us wanted. There are people who care deeply about these little girls. Sabrina bought bunk beds today and was switching her and Jeff’s room with their little girl’s room so that the three girls have more space. She also enrolled the girls in daycare.



I took a phone call from Jenny at the jail yesterday. I let her talk to the girls. Mostly she is just trying to control things from the jail. She is not having much success. She was telling me she didn’t want the girls to go to Sabrina she wanted me to keep them. I told her that’s not an option. She wants me to keep them because I have more money than Sabrina and she thinks if I have all the kids she will have more access to me. Not going to happen. Sabrina won’t take her collect calls from the jail because she doesn’t want to spend $5 talking to her. (good call) Today Jenny called from the jail (collect) and said she was DCFS. Not really a good start to getting her kids back.


I’ve talked to the girls about going to live with Sabrina and they say they want to stay here but they are not upset when we talk about it. I told them about school and the new beds and Kylie was excited. Sabrina works for a company that teaches babies to read. She says that 90% of the brain formation is complete at age 5 so she only has 6 months to get Kylie’s brain up to where it should be. Yesterday I was driving the kids to daycare and Kylie said “look there’s an elephant.” Really, an elephant on Legacy Parkway? It was a horse. I said “Kylie, that’s a horse.” She said “oh.” I asked if she knew what a horse said and she didn’t. We then passed a cow and she couldn’t identify it or tell me what it said. Today when we drove past the horse she said “look it’s a horse and they say neigh.” Then she saw a cow and said “that’s a cow it says moo and gives milk.” She is a sponge. Last night I baked a cake and she was getting ready to eat it when I heard her say “Fold your arms, Heavenly Father, Amen, Heather said.” She also keeps calling me “Sweetheart” which must be another thing from Heather because I don’t think I say Sweetheart. It’s just so cute to hear her mimicking good behavior. This is a little girl whose first words were F### You. She has come a long way. Brie has been talking too. As a matter of fact Brie has been downright sassy. In the past she’s been such a passive little doormat I’m really not quite accustomed to the new opinionated Brie.

I took them all to daycare again today. Kylie asked me tonight “can we go to Sean’s daycare again tomorrow?” Hmm, maybe if they insist I will let them. Alika is leaving next week to work for the summer and Yellowstone National Park. I have to work every day for the next three weeks so I’ve hired one of my former students, Frida to be a live in nanny. We will see how that goes it might give me more to write about. Frida wants to marry Carter and told Grandma that she will take care of her if she needs an aide. Carter, unfortunately doesn’t want to marry her and I’m not sure he’ll be thrilled that she is living with us for three weeks.

Where to begin?

Jenny has quit calling every three minutes and our phone is back on the hook. As a matter of fact I have had no calls from “Inmate” for over 24 hours. They moved her to maximum security so she is in “lock down” 23 hours per day. (Isn’t it cool how I have this lingo down?) I took the phone off the hook after talking to Jenny and listening to her cry and beg me to bail her out. She told me it wouldn’t cost me anything and all I had to do was sign a paper. How could that be I asked? “Because you own a house” was her response. Right, I’m going to put my house up to bail her out. I think NOT. I told her no and she just kept crying and begging. It did leave me to ponder who I would bail out of jail.

I haven’t talked to DCFS since yesterday. The worker told me she would let me know today what is going on. I am still waiting. In the mean time the girls are at my house. They had been with Heather but she now has stomach flu. The girls are doing amazingly well. They did ask about their mom last night. I told them I had seen their mom yesterday (ok so it was really on closed circuit TV from the jail, but nonetheless I saw her) and she wanted me to give them kisses. I kissed their heads and feet and said it was from their mom and that was enough to satisfy them. There haven’t been any tears. (Except when I wouldn’t let her eat the entire box of oatmeal pies) I would think they would be very stressed being shuttled between me, Sabrina and Heather but they seem to be holding up. I took all the kids to daycare today because I wanted peace and quiet.

Brie hasn’t had much to say. I let them all talk to their dad on the phone yesterday and their conversations were “hi daddy, we are at Grandmas, we’re playing games, bye!”

I still don’t know what really happened at their house Sunday night. Friday when Jenny was begging me to bail her out she was insistent that the girls go to Ryan’s. I told her I didn’t think that was a good idea and I was worried Ryan would be drinking. She kept saying he’ll drink if he doesn’t have the girls and I want them home. Friday I met Sabrina and she took the girls that night with the plan they would come back to me on Sunday and I would them give them back to Heather. Ryan and Sabrina had words on Saturday and Sabrina took the girls back to him Saturday evening. I didn’t feel good about that and neither did Sabrina or Heather but we really didn’t have any choice. On Sunday Ryan left me a message asking me to come get the girls because he had things to do. I was kind of annoyed and ignored the message for awhile but I just had a really bad feeling I should get the girls. I texted Ryan about 6:30 and asked if he wanted me to get them then or in the morning. He said now if I could. I took AJ with me and we drove over. Ryan and I didn’t say much to each other I just asked for some clothes for the kids and left. Once in the car Kylie started chatting. The first thing she said was “Daddy hit Brie in the head and made her nose bleed everywhere.” I was processing that when she said “Oh, Daddy said DON’T TELL GRANDMA.” I asked Brie if she was ok but she wasn’t talking. I asked Kylie if her dad hit her and she said “No, just Brie, Kylie wasn’t bad.” When I got over to Heather’s with the girls I noticed that Brie had red marks all over her left side. I checked the car seat to see if there was anything in the car seat that could have caused them but couldn’t find anything. Kylie didn’t say Brie got hit anywhere else so I don’t know what’s up with the red marks. I can make some assumptions but I don’t really know what happened.

When I talked to Ryan about it he explained that Brie ran into his hand. That’s kind of a funny comment. I guess Brie ran into Ryan’s hand just like Ryan ran into the brick Jenny was holding in her hand. There seems to be a lot of people running into things in that family.

DCFS called Monday morning and wanted me to bring the kids in to be seen. Heather picked me up and we took the girls over. The case worker talked to all of us and then she wanted to talk to Kylie alone. Kylie didn’t want to be alone so I sat on the couch with her. The case worker asked her if she knew the difference between the truth and a lie. Then she started talking to her. She asked if she like Grandma’s house and what she liked about it. She said my house is white and there is a round thing she can jump on. She then asked who lives at Grandma’s house. Kylie said “I don’t know.” Then she said “daddy.” I thought she was talking about Don. The case worker said “tell me something you like about daddy.” Kylie said “Daddy hit Brie in the head like this and made blood come out.”

I’ve talked to Ryan more in the past 36 hours then in the last 3 years. He left me a message saying that while he was a father he wasn’t capable of being a parent because he doesn’t have a job….. It was very sad. He said he and Jenny are over. I don’t know if I believe it because they are still talking every day and if it’s over I’m not sure what there is to talk about. He also shared some whopper lies Jenny has told him. The lies don’t really explain anything or change anything but they just add to the soap opera of their lives. I told Ryan the same thing I’ve always told him “I’m sorry you had a crappy childhood but you need to get your life together because you are destroying your kid’s lives…” I told Ryan that I don’t know what happened at his house on Sunday before I got there but I appreciate him calling me to come get the girls before something really bad happened that we would all regret. Ryan told me this morning that there is going to be a hearing about the girl’s future but doesn’t know when or where.

I think that covers most of the highlights.

My favorite brick

This is a picture of what used to be my favorite brick. (I got it when they tore down the East Wing of the old Holy Cross Hospital. As far as I know it's still in the NICU where I left it.). Now I have a new favorite brick but I have no idea where it is located. According to the judge it is somewhere in the vicinity of 6th South.

I don’t know where to start so I’ll just go straight for the part I found amusing.

At Jenny’s request I went to her arraignment this morning. I had never been to an arraignment so why not? Her sister Sabrina came and her DCFS case worker was there. I thought they would bring Jenny from the jail and I would see her. (I think she thought so as well) She was broadcast to the courtroom from the jail via television. The DCFS worker, bless her heart sees Jenny as a lost soul and a victim. I see her as a manipulative soul and her children as victims. This is not to say that I do not still feel a sense of compassion for Jenny because I do but I know that she takes the cake when it comes to playing on peoples sympathy and emotions. I am in fact, case in point.

Jenny comes on the screen and says she can’t afford an attorney and the judge says one will be appointed and sets a court date. Jenny then says she already has a hearing for other charges that date. They judge says one is in the morning and one is in the afternoon so it’s ok. At this point the case worker is allowed to speak on Jenny’s behalf. She says that Jenny has been a victim of domestic violence for three years and that DCFS and the state do not feel having her “sit in jail” serves a purpose. The judge says “well, I think someone else from the state sitting right there (she points to the prosecuting attorney) would disagree. Being a victim of domestic violence doesn’t make it ok to hit someone in the head with a brick.” This made me chuckle because I had not heard any of the details of the incident. Jenny then tells the judge that she only said she hit him in the head with a brick because she was drunk but that Ryan said she didn’t really hit him in the head with a brick. Wow, that’s classic Jenny. The judge then says “whether your husband says you hit him with a brick or not does not matter. There is a witness who is not related to you and he says you did him with a brick.” Wow, that’s classic Judge. I am left to ponder the brick. What kind was it? Was it an entire brick or part of a brick? On Ryan's mug shot he had a new gash on his forehead so obviously it was a hard brick. Harder than his head at any rate.

Maybe it really wasn't funny but it sure seemed so at the time.