[slthomas00]

nope - no other mods. I flashed, applied Verizon cab, then removed the package "sharkie405's SharkieROM Default (Start, Settings, System, Remove Programs). The home sense page looks fine as you show in your screenshot, but in the start menu pages the icon text is all scrambled. If I slide the keyboard out and it flips to landscape, they are OK until I click another menu. Perhaps I also removed Sharkie405's Tab Links too - maybe that did it?

As far as setting the wallpaper in the manner you state - I can see it changes something in the background as Sense restarts - but then when Sense finally initializes it went back to the balloons walpaper you had. I had to perform the settings in "Settings/Personalize/Home tab wallpaper" and in "Settings/Personalize/Lock Screen walpaper.