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!

Feekner photo

Mandy and I had dinner last night with some friends and I was told that they didn't know about my photo blog that I started so I just wanted to add a post so that anyone following this blog will know that I did indeed start a photo blog. Instead of getting into all of the details why don't you just go and check it out! Click here feekner photo or go to http://feekner.blogspot.com

Also, if you can't figure it out, feekner is phonetically how you say our last name. Well maybe not the true German way but it's how I pronounce it!

Here is a taste of my flickr site and some of the photos I've been taking. You can never have too much of the Masters and Augusta National.



Have a nice weekend!

Seattle's Newest Teacher

I'm happy to announce that Mandy has been offered a position at Seattle Christian School as their Art and Technology teacher position for high school and one middle school class. During the last 7 months of Mandy not having a job there have been a lot of challenges for both of us. There was a lot of questioning God and what His plans were for us.

When Mandy took the girls golf coach position at the same school I knew that she would do great with the kids. Mandy has a knack with kids and knows that sports is not about winning but having fun (Maybe I should listen to Mandy too). They did finish 7-1 so there was definitely fun and winning. I think she did a great job at this based on the comments I heard from some of her golf girls.




So when the Art teacher position opened up at the same school I knew it had to be God that set this up. Neither of us wanted to get our hopes up and so we prayed about it and tried to not talk too much about it. It seemed to good to be true. Mandy had her first interview a week ago and it sounded like it went well. Well they called a couple days ago and asked for a second interview. That's always a good sign! When she showed up they started talking as if she already had the job. Mandy was confused. They ended up offering her the job contingent upon follow up with her references. We knew that would be a slam dunk so today Mandy got the word. I'm very proud of my wife and so happy for her. This has been a long hard road for both of us and it's going to end with Mandy teaching art (which she loves) and coaching golf (which she loves) at a Christian school (which she loves). Congrats Mandy! You'll be the best teacher!

Bath time with Luke

Bath time with our nephew Luke. What a cute kid!

Is there a job out there?

Anyone who reads this knows that my wife is a very talented individual. Daily she amazes me with her ideas and art and passion. One of the things that has become so clear to me over the last few years and more so in the last few months is that Mandy is great with kids and teaching. She has a natural gift to work with them in a way that others can't. She's demonstrated this in her art classes that she was teaching to grade school kids and now she's doing it with high school girls for Seattle Christian school. (Who by the way is 5-0!) It seems natural for her to be called into something related to this for a full time job.

Mandy and I have been praying for the right job to come along for her. Asking God that He would show us that job and help us to be patient. We're not sure if the right job will be her selling her art, teaching kids art or something we're not even aware of. We recently started modifying our shed so she had a dedicated place to do her art. Well Mandy was applying for many jobs with no success and a lot of frustration and hurt but recently had a phone interview for the Children's Museum in Seattle and everything about it sounded great! Both of us were so excited and we thought it was God's answer to our prayer.....well apparently it wasn't meant to be. Turns out they need someone next week which conflicts with her golf schedule. I don't get it! It's so frustrating and my heart breaks listening to my wife and her disappointment. All I want is for her to be happy. I just want her to know that she's not a failure and her gifts are so great and she has so much to offer this world. I just want to go to these places that she's applying and tell them everything about Mandy and why she would be great!

One thing I'm learning in this situation is that we have to continually rely on God and His plan for our lives. We can't do this on our own as we will fall short. Mandy, God has big plans for you as we heard last night and I don't want you to lose sight of that! I love you Mandy!

Back to Reality

Well it's back to reality. Going back to work has been difficult because ever since I've gotten back I just want to look at my pictures/video or think about the Masters. Unfortunately with Mandy's surprise came the reality that I actually did have to do the taxes. I now know to never believe Mandy when she says that she's going to do them. Although I think after this surprise she could probably make something else up pretty easily. It was a great trip and it's nice to be back! I'll always have my memories.....and about 2,000 photos!