Is it really that hard?

I will forever live a life with a confusing last name. Both saying it and spelling it is difficult for people. I'm not sure why! I guess I've had my whole life to practice saying it and repeating it to people and correcting their spelling of it. I find it very entertaining to see how people spell it and say it. I've seen it spelled so many different ways: Feichtner, Fiebner, Siechtner, Fletcher, Flechtner, Fiechma, Feikner to name a few. Listening to people say it wrong my entire life I've started spelling it to them phonetically F-E-E-K-N-E-R. Funny thing is that FEEKNER has become many of my logins and usernames including flickr or my photo blog cause Fiechtner is too difficult for people to understand or spell.

Here's a recent funny story, the person at the drycleaners couldn't spell our name right so I handed him my driver's license to show him and now I will always be known at this dry cleaners as "Mr. Fiechma" because he just copied my driver's license number which includes the first five letters in your last name and the first initial for your first and middle names or MA for Michael Allen. I'm glad all of my dress shirts now have FIECHMA printed on them.

Having a confusing last name is a blessing and a curse. Here are just a few positives and negatives to having a unique last name. If you have a unique last name I'm sure you can relate:

Positive:
1. You always knew when your name would be called during roll call at school on the first day. It would go something like this, "Ellis, Everett, Fffff........." and I would chime in "Here! It's pronounced Fiechtner (you idiot)"
2. You know when a solicitor is calling on the home phone. Solicitor: "Is Mrs. Fiechtner (mispronounced) home?" Me: "No" CLICK.
3. Easier to Google yourself
4. Easy to find Usernames on websites that work. Most of the time mfiechtner or something similar is available. You'll never see me with johnsmith26@gmail.com or something like that.
5. Easy to find family history on the internet
6. People will be more likely to remember you
7. You can get a good laugh at Safeway when they try to pronounce your name when handing you the receipt. You either get the person that will try to pronounce it, the person that looks at the receipt confused and muffles their voice attempting to pronounce it cause they have no clue or the person that just looks at the receipt and looks up and says "thanks."

Negative:
1. People can't seem to find your reservation that you made. Go back to all the different spellings and try each until you find the right one.
2. Constantly having to repeat it and getting that "What the hell did you say?" look from people.
3. Mandy has to decide how to present herself in her new class. It may end up being just Mrs. F. Anyone have a suggestion?
4. Microsoft Word says that it's mispelled in all of my documents.
5. Your true friends still can't pronounce it or spell it.

Having a last name like Fiechtner has presented many challenges in my life but overall I'm happy with the name and I will be proud to pass it down to my children. I will always remind them how to say it just like my grandpa Verne would say it, with a true German accent (make sure you almost spit when saying it).

I will always love being a Fiechtner!

Move or no move?

Mandy and I are tinkering with the idea of moving further north in West Seattle. Are we crazy? It would only be a few miles more north. Sometimes Mandy gets these crazy ideas and I never know whether it's something she's completely serious about or if it's just her need for change. I've definitely learned in my three years of marriage that Mandy loves change. I'm not at all saying it's a bad thing. She has a brain that goes a mile a minute and occasionally I have to bring her back to reality. I love you Mandy! Most of the time though her ideas are great and something I would have never thought of. I'm usually pretty content with where I'm at and don't like to rock the boat. Well her latest idea of moving further north is starting to sound kind of nice. We'd be closer to some of our good friends John and Nichelle Keatley and most importantly my parents. We'd also have a shorter trip downtown and be in a nicer neighborhood (most likely).

The other idea we've had is remodeling our house a little. If you've been in our house we are thinking about tearing down the wall and pantry between our living room and kitchen which would open things up quite a bit. We'd also like to potentially add something to the front of the house. Not sure if that would be an additional room where our right driveway is or some kind of porch and additional peak in our roof at our front door. We just don't like the look of our "box" of a house.
What do you guys think?

If you haven't already done so, please go and check out my photo blog or flickr site!