Tara Conry

When I was pregnant with my son, it felt like everyone we knew was getting married. I attended seven weddings with that baby in my belly, sipping on Shirley Temples and trying to keep up on the dance floor with our friends who weren't with child. These are all the weddings I attended while pregnant with my first child over a decade ago, but lately the invites are few and far between.

When the dismissal bell rings at my son's middle school it signals the start of a rat race that will take us well into the night. My mom or I will pick him up, then shoot over to my daughter's elementary school, then back home to do homework before my husband or I have to take a kid to religion, then to dance or gymnastics, and hockey or soccer.

Molloy University in Rockville Centre was named among the top 40 regional universities in the North, by U.S. News & World Report. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr. Adelphi (my husband's alma mater) climbed seven spots, so it's now tied with Hofstra (my college), which fell eight. And Molloy (where my mother got her nursing degree) leaped 27 places to be named among the top 40 regional universities in the North.