The table you created is a great start for me, thank you. However - I still want to figure out a way to value the 1/2 day absences, and am looking for a formula that will add (for instance), all the V days (where V = 1) and all the vv days (where vv = .5) within a particular range of cells. (I understand now that I need a different kind of letter for the half days, and will need to change all the drop down formulas accordingly.)

Ideally - since I have (horizontally) - three months across, it would be something LIKE (obviously this is not even a pretend proper code.......):

= SUM (A5:G10) + (I5:O10) + (Q5:W10), only V=1 and vv=.5

Is this possible? I'm finding conflicting online information about assigning values to letters, but - it can't be THAT hard (can it???)!

Thank you!