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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 9-823 / 09-0803 Filed December 17, 2009

IN RE THE MARRIAGE OF HANNAH F. HAYNES AND BILLY J. HAYNES Upon the Petition of HANNAH F. HAYNES, n/k/a HANNAH F. HAYNES METCALF, Petitioner-Appellant, And Concerning BILLY J. HAYNES, Respondent-Appellee. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Van Buren County, Annette J. Scieszinski, Judge.

A mother appeals from a district court ruling modifying the physical care and visitation provisions of the parties' dissolution decree. AFFIRMED.

Jeffrey R. Logan of Curran Law Office, Ottumwa, for appellant. Michael R. Brown of Brown Law Office, P.C., Fairfield, for appellee.

Considered by Vogel, P.J., and Doyle and Mansfield, JJ.

2 DOYLE, J. Hannah Haynes, now known as Hannah Haynes Metcalf, appeals from a district court ruling modifying the physical care and visitation provisions of the decree dissolving her marriage to Billy Haynes. We affirm the judgment of the district court. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. The parties' marriage was dissolved in August 2006. The dissolution

decree incorporated the parties' stipulation that their two children, then two-yearold Tyrone and three-month-old Torance,1 would be placed in their joint legal custody and in Hannah's physical care. The parties agreed to the following

visitation schedule for Billy in order to accommodate his three-days-on, threedays-off work schedule: During Billy's 3 days off from work that do not cover a weekend, Billy shall have the children from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.** When this daytime visitation schedule interferes with the children's school schedule, the visitation shall be from the time school lets out to 8:00 p.m. In addition to this visitation, Billy shall have two weekends of visitation each month which coincide with his weekends off from work. The practical effect is that Billy shall have 4 overnights with the children per month.** During the school year, the weekend overnights must occur on either Friday or Saturday night. ** As of the preparation of this stipulation, there has been very little contact between Billy and child Torrance. While the above visitation schedule is in place for Tyrone, this will not be the schedule for Torrance until she has reached 18 months of age. Until Torrance has reached 18 months of age, Torrance shall go for visitation with Billy on the same occasions as Tyrone, however, she will only stay for visitation for 2 hours until two months from entry of the decree of dissolution. After two months from the date of entry of the decree has passed, Billy's visitation with Torrance shall increase to 5 hours. Once Torrance has reached 18 months of age, the visitation will then expand to the same as Tyrone's.
1

The parents confirmed this spelling of Torance's name at trial, although it is spelled differently elsewhere in the court file and record.

3 Billy filed a contempt application less than three months after the dissolution decree was entered. He alleged Hannah had denied him visitation during a weekend in October 2006. Prior to the hearing on Billy's application, the parties agreed to modify the decree to provide for specific yearly schedules detailing Billy's visitation with the children. The "Consent Decree of Modification" entered in January 2007 stated: "[T]he visitation schedule for the year 2006 is attached (see Exhibit A). . . . [A]nother schedule is to be prepared by [Billy] similar to Exhibit A for the year 2007 and the parties will confer and consent to a yearly schedule." Unfortunately, Hannah and Billy were unable to agree on the visitation schedule for 2007. Billy filed an "Application for Hearing on Visitation" in March 2007. A hearing on that application was continued several times while the

parties negotiated the schedule for 2007. They finally reached an agreement in June of that year, but it was short-lived. Hannah filed a petition to modify the visitation provisions of the dissolution decree in May 2008, alleging the current schedule was not in the children's best interests. Billy filed an answer and "counterclaim," requesting the dis solution decree be modified to place the children in his physical care. He alleged Hannah was continuously denying him visitation with the children. counterclaim came before the district court for trial in April 2009. At the time of the trial, Hannah was employed part-time at a convenience store. She typically works every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 5:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. She also works one or two other days during the week. When Hannah has to work, she wakes the children up around 4:45 a.m. and takes them The petition and

4 next door to her mother's house. The children usually go back to sleep once there, although Tyrone has to be awake by 6:30 a.m. during the week to get ready for school. The school's bus driver testified that Tyrone often falls asleep on the bus. He has also had some behavior problems at school, which Hannah attributes to him being tired from the mid-week visits with Billy. Hannah testified her "main concern is to get a more structured schedule for the kids." She explained the current visitation schedule was confusing for both the parties and the children because the days on which Billy was to have visitation constantly varied. Hannah testified she and Billy have not been able to agree on a schedule for his visitation with the children since the dissolution decree was entered. According to Hannah, "every month it seems like there's problems." She consequently proposed modifying the decree to provide for

visitation every Wednesday from after school until 7:00 p.m., every other weekend from Friday after school until Sunday at 7:00 p.m., and alternating weeks during the summer, with the following proviso: "If either party has

visitation with the children and they are unable to personally supervise and spend time with the children, the other parent shall have the first opportunity to supervise the children." Hannah explained that if Billy had to work on a weekend the children were scheduled to be in his care, she would pick the children up at his house at 6:00 a.m. before he went to work and return them at 6:00 p.m. when he returned home from work. She testified that way "the children spend the most maximum time with a parent. So if, you know, if the parent's not going to be there, why do they need the kid or kids?"

5 Billy was engaged to be married at the time of the trial. He and his fianc

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