dsims

found a good regular expression to strip li from tags

if($post->post_parent)
$children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->post_parent."&echo=0"); else
$children = wp_list_pages("title_li=&child_of=".$post->ID."&echo=0");

if ($children) {
$my_id = $post->post_parent;
$deli = get_post($my_id);
$title = $deli->post_title;
$childer=preg_match_all("%(<a.*?>)(.*?)(<\/a.*?>)%is",$children,  $child );
$jesuschrist=the_title('','',false);
$key = array_search( '<a href="'.get_permalink().'" title="'.$jesuschrist.'">'.$jesuschrist.'</a>',$child[0]);
if (empty($key) && $key !== 0){?>
<div class="navigation">
			<div class="alignleft"></div>
			<div class="alignright"><?php echo $child[0][0]; ?> &raquo;</div>
		</div>
<?php }elseif($key === 0 ){
?>
<div class="navigation">
			<div class="alignleft">&laquo; <a href="<?php the_permalink($my_id); ?>" title="<?php  echo $title; ?>"><?php echo $title; ?></a></div>
			<div class="alignright"><?php echo $child[0][($key+1)]; ?> &raquo;</div>
		</div>

<?php }else{ ?>
<div class="navigation">
			<div class="alignleft">&laquo; <?php echo $child[0][($key-1)]; ?></div>
			<?php if(!$child[0][($key+1)]){ ?>
			<div class="alignright"></div>
			</div>
			<?php }else{ ?>
			<div class="alignright"><?php echo $child[0][($key+1)]; ?> &raquo;</div>
		</div>
		<?php }
		}
 }?>

I hope someone finds this useful. The reason I made this is because I was unsure if the id would be difficult to find so I basically took the wp_list_pages and turned it into a user friendly array instead of looking high and low for an answer to my problem. I believe in open source so enjoy.