It is such a relief to have all of my applications sent off, I sent the last one off yesterday so now it is just a matter of waiting time to find out if I'm successful in getting in to my top choices. Penn State is still the one that I want to go to the most but If I had to settle for second best any of my top three would be good colleges, as they all have good accounting programs.

But it is still good that my applications have been finished.

I've finished working on the final applications for my top four colleges and I sent them off the other day. I'm still working through the final copy for my application to Penn State, which should hopefully be finished over the next few days.

The college that I want to attend the most is Penn State, so I need to make sure the application is absolutely perfect before I send it off.

I'm so glad that school is back in full swing, senior year is amazing so far! My classes are great and I'm enjoying my other activities at school as well.

I've finally settled on my 'top five' colleges and I've been steadily working on applications. My top five are : Penn State, University of Austin-Texas, University of Southern California, University of Michigan and University of Connecticut (which is my 'safety').

I can't believe how fast the summer has gone by.

It's only seemed like yesterday that we had just got out of school and now school starts back next week.

I'm so excited about the classes that I'm taking this semester, this year will be pretty amazing, what with serving on the school board, getting to do cross country again this semester and working at dad's for two days a week.

I'm also going to hopefully finalize what school's I want to apply to in the next couple of weeks, I think I've got it narrowed down to a top five but I need to do some more research first.

I've been having so much fun these school holidays. I know that most people won't find working in the office of an accounting firm fun, especially if said firm is being run by their father but I've been really enjoying the experience. I've been helping my dad at the office on a regular basis for the past couple of years now but this summer is the first time that I'm helped him full time, working Monday to Friday.

I think that the fact that I've been enjoying the experience proves, beyond any other doubt, that one day I'm going to be an accountant for real.

I'm pretty happy with the way exams went over the past week. I studied and made sure that I was confident with the material so I think I did pretty well, or at least I'm certain that I passed.

I'm really looking forward to the holidays. I'm mostly going to be helping dad out at the office and I'm going to be working five days instead of the regular two that I've been doing over the past year.

And of course senior year is going to be awesome as well, what with me being bursar on the SDS Governing Board and with all of my friends going to be on the board as well.

I've decided that I'm going to run for the position of Bursar on the SDS Governing Board.

It's a position that just seems right for me, I have experience helping dad out at his office and I enjoy this type of thing. Accounting is a career I want to pursue and every little bit of experience I can get will help.

Now I just have to prepare for the elections.

Easter was pretty good this year. It was just me, mom, dad and Tricia since Martin couldn't manage to get away to come down for the weekend.

I would have liked to have seen Martin again, since I haven't seen him since Christmas but he said he'd try and get away at some point in the next couple of weeks. At least I can still email him and talk to him on the phone, speaking of which I'm going to make sure that I send him an email this evening so that I can wish him a Happy Easter.

I'm so glad that I decided to go on this trip. I've been to Disney World before but it was quite a while ago so when this cruise was announced I knew that I had to sign up for it.

I brought some post cards to send out to people back home, so I'm going to do that now before I forget.

Dad's just informed us that he has taken this coming weekend off work. This will be his first entire weekend off since ... I don't know when. He wants us to do 'family' time as in go out for a meal, go to the movies or a play or something like that.

It should be pretty interesting to see how this weekend pans out, I don't think Tricia is that happy about it but who knows when the next time dad will have a weekend free?

I did some catching up with Lindsey the other day, since it's been a while since we've really had a proper conversation. We've both been so busy at school because of finals but I knew that if I didn't do it then it probably would have been ages since I got to speak to her.

I've vowed that I'm going to put in a bigger effort to keep in touch with my friends. Even if it is only a quick conversation at lunch, it's better than nothing.

I can't believe Christmas is almost here.

I've brought most of my Christmas presents, I've just got to get a couple of things for Tricia (who is really hard to buy for). Since we're having Christmas at our place this year, all our relatives have come over to Stoneybrook.

I love having my cousins over. Martin, Tricia and I get along really well with them but we only tend to see them a couple of times a year. Our relatives will be leaving on the 27th, so we've got a couple of extra days to spend time with them.

Martin's coming home this week for Thanksgiving.

I haven't seen my brother since he left for Harvard a few months ago.

I can't wait to see him, I mean sure I talk to him on the phone and we email but its not the same as having him in the house again.

He's coming on Wednesday night and will be leaving Sunday afternoon.

I'm going to make sure that all the work that I need to finish for the week is done by the time that he arrives so that I can spend more time with him while he's here.

Dad's making arrangements for us to have a family dinner next Friday.

By us I mean dad, Tricia and me.

I don't know about Tricia but I'm definitely looking forward to it. What dad said was true, it's been ages since we've done any father-daughters bonding. When Tricia and I were younger it used to be a common event between us and dad, but when we grew up and both dad and I got even more busy with work and various other things we didn't have time to spend together like we used to.

It will be a nice change to take time out from work and school stuff and focus on family, and who knows maybe we can make it a more regular event if next Friday goes well.