Excel Spreadsheets

One of the many hundreds of things I just adore about my husband is his incredible proficiency at spreadsheets. Eric is amazing with Excel. Just one of the benefits of marrying an actuary, right?! This skill plays itself out in some unique ways within our marriage...

One (not exactly surprising) way this helps our marriage is money management. In our first year of marriage, Eric built this incredible document that tracked our spending month to month that tied to my preferred book-keeping method (MS Money), so that I could enter our spending in a user-friendly format and he could import that data and manage our total cash flow. A brilliant solution to get a theater major and a math / economics major to work together on budgets - and we still use it to this day.

Another recent excel spreadsheet victory is our family packing list. We have a lengthy detailed travel list coded for me, and Eric, and Brooks, plus gear and specialty items (ie, bathing suits and hiking boots don't get included each and every time we travel). I use it every single time we pull out our luggage - I'd be lost without it. It's so nice to not have to rack my brain to remember if I've forgotten anything critical before we walk out the door - especially since we're generally packing in the middle of the night, or ten minutes after we were supposed to leave for the airport.

When we were planning our move to the UK, Eric put together a ridiculously long "London To Do List" in excel with categories (health/medical, legal, packing, housing, etc.), along with a needed action date, and the person responsible for driving us towards that due date. One of the many challenges we faced was that most of what had to be done required input from both us but we needed a way to divide and conquer and to know who was going to spearhead what. This document was my brain during our last six weeks in the US in the summer of 2007, especially as we wanted to take time out to see friends and family and enjoy lots of "lasts"... If we had not had all this stuff down on paper, I would have been a nervous wreck. Plus, it was a great confidence boost to look back periodically and see all that we had checked off the list!

When we learned that we were expecting our next baby to arrive on the scene approx 10 days before Eric's contract in the UK was to expire, we both felt a bit overwhelmed with our choices and decisions. Do we stay in the UK and await the babe's arrival in our (very expensive) flat, possibly even after Eric's stopped working, knowing that we'd then have to pack and fly home with a toddler and a newborn, finding a house in Chicago and being somewhat nomadic without the support of family close-by? Do we try to rush home early to get settled into our new home in Chicago before the baby arrives, knowing that I won't be able to nest or even set up the nursery, since our baby furniture and essential home items would still be on a boat from the UK? Or do we look for another option? And does Eric need to work until the last moment so we can get paternity leave from his firm? Or we do choose his last day based on what's most convenient for us and ask for an unpaid leave of absence? After hours of conversation and laying awake several nights trying to sort it all out, Eric decided to put down all the pros and cons in writing. He crafted a brilliant spreadsheet with all the factors (including my pregnancy travel limits, estimated start and end dates of both work and housing, and approx financial impact of each decision) laying out the best four or five options he could come up with. It was brilliant! I love the way his mind works.

For a normally emotional, go-with-my-gut woman who's currently extra hormonal and pregnant, this effort was such a gift! Eric creating such a fabulous spreadsheet felt like him slaying the mental dragons that had been plaguing both of us. It allowed me the opportunity to weigh everything carefully, to see it all clearly, rather than trying to feel my way towards the right decision. Thank you, darling husband, for using this skill to make our home life so much better!

For those wondering about the rest of the story... We spent a week or two thinking, praying, and talking over our options and then made our final decision after speaking to Eric's Global Mobility Consultant. Turns out, Eric's US firm WILL provide paternity leave, no matter what country we're in, or whether he's currently working in the US or not. And it's somewhat expected/normal for folks to take an extended leave of absence following an international secondment. Two months seems relatively short by comparison, given what other co-workers have done and the fact that we'll be welcoming a new baby to the family.

Can you even believe how good God is to us!? Not to even mention how THRILLED we are to be going to Nashville for the summer, enjoying the neighborhood pool and sunshiney weather, letting Brooks play in the garden and with my friends' children - and knowing that when it's time to head to the hospital, Brooks will be happily tucked in bed at "home" and getting loved on by his grandparents while we go meet his new "baby brudder" or "baby sister". :)

We are so blessed.