Robert turns 12 years old

 Robert celebrated his birthday with friends at Red Robin for lunch … and with family at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

Matthew, Ryan, Robert, Aaron, Eric and Mason

At Red Robin, Robert had his friends Matthew Finnicum, Ryan D., Aaron Green, Eric Kirby and Mason Rice eat a fun lunch with him and play arcade games.  These boys are great friends!

The staff at Red Robin were so nice - they brought Robert a free sundae to celebrate.  All the boys got balloons, too.

That night Robert's dad and mom took him out to the Cheesecake Factory.  We took Jessica too, as a celebration of her being accepted into BYU.  Robert ordered his favorite Crusted Romero Chicken, and the Reeses Peanut butter cheesecake!  YUM!

It's hard to believe that Robert is already 12 years old, in middle school, and now receiving the priesthood.  He's a great kid!  We love him!!!

Running the Anthem 5K as a family

Jessica, Katie, Robert, Marissa, Devon behind Marissa and Betsy

Ready for the race to start - we are center frame

2/26/11 - A few months back our family decided we were going to run the Anthem 5K as a family.  Well, that was before Mark had to have surgery on his elbow, so now he's unable to run however we had already paid for his spot in the race…so we invited Katie Walker, one of Marissa's cross country friends that has a very similar pace to her to run in Mark's place.  It was a great morning to run.  Cold, but not rainy!  Devon found his scout leader, Brandon White - the two ran together.  Marissa is with Katie, Robert is with Jessica and I am the turtle.

This year they had to change the course because Frankfort Ave was flooded.  Yikes, Betsy wasn't too happy about this, but really, what can she do?  NOTHING!

The race starts and everyone is off in front of me … and the times come in that way too.
Jessica came in at 20:44 (2 minute improvement from last year)
Devon came in at 21: (slow for his normal 5K, but it was very crowded)
Robert came in at 22:25
Marissa and Katie came in at 25:08 (slower than their last 5K but much more crowded)
Betsy came in at 27:09 (almost 3 minutes faster than last year's time)

What a great feeling!  We all had a great time - everyone except Mark.  He would have preferred to run, but he was a great supporter waiting for us at the finish line.

Districts - Season comes to an end

2/23/11 Everyone is so excited for the girls to win their first game in districts.  They have the potential, the question is can they with Taylor Moore and Meghan Welle injured.  Meghan cut off her cast on Monday so that she could play, but I don't think that was such a smart idea.  #1 she injured her shooting hand, #2, she's not strong with it - it's been in a cast for 3 weeks, #3 she's out of practice, and #4 most importantly she could permanently injure it (but I'm not her mom).

We play against Oldham County (our rival).  The game starts out very intense.  The first quarter ends with us down by one 13 - 14.  Jessica has 9 rebounds in the first quarter alone.  Second quarter we are down by three the score is 25 - 28.  It's such a close game - it could go either way.  Third quarter was the determiner - Oldham County came out double teaming Jessica for rebounds and put backs, and they made most every shot, where as we made shots, but they just didn't go in.  It was a terrible quarter:  we scored 7, they scored 16:  32 - 44.  We had our most productive quarter in the 4th quarter, but so did they:  we scored 16, they scored 23.  Final score of the game:  48-67.

Jessica had 6 points, 15 rebounds, 3 hustle plays, 3 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocked shots and a charge taken.  She made 100% of her free throws (4).  OCHS did an excellent job blocking her out and double teaming Jessica for rebounds.

Jessica finished the season with these totals:
24 games
182 points (#2 on the team),
252 rebounds (#1 on the team)
53 assists (#2 on the team)
46 steals (#1 on the team)
25 blocked shots (#2 on the team)
20 defense assists (#1 on the team)
7 charges taken (#1 on the team)
She shot 52% from the field and 52% from the line.  She was averaging a double/double before her concussion, and finished with an average of 7.5 points per game, and 10.5 rebounds per game.  GREAT SEASON!

Jessica Lowe and Nicole Bryant were named All District Players at the District Championship games.

Jessica is accepted to BYU Provo

2/24/11 What a great morning!

  Jessica has always, ever since she was old enough to know what BYU-Provo was, wanted to go to BYU PROVO!  Today her dream came true!  She was accepted!

I saw that Jessica's friend, Amanda McCall posted "I'm going to BYU" on Facebook, so I told Jessica to check her email.  Less than 2 minutes later, I can overhear Jessica on the phone with her friends screeching and cheering.  I think it's safe to say she made it in.  As soon as the room gets quiet, she comes running down the stairs to tell us that she's made it into BYU-Provo - her dream come true!  Later that day we found out her other best friend, Jenny Orr also made it into BYU-Provo.  The three plan to be roommates!

So happy for all of them!

The three amigos will be heading off to college together!

Training for Triple Crown

We are going to run the triple crown Anthem 5K race together as a family.  Mark and I ordered our spots a while back, but now with his elbow - he is unable to run.  Everyone else will run and we've invited Marissa's friend, Katie Walker from Cross Country to run with her.

I am so happy for myself - I've been training for the triple crown Anthem 5K race (it's next Saturday), and then I got the stomach flu for four days this week.  It wiped me out completely, so I wasn't able to run at all.  Today, I ran the 5K with only one tiny break in 26.28.  I was so excited.

Team Celebration Party at our house

2/18/11 - Betsy hosted the team's End of Season Celebration Party at our house.  She loves to have friends over (yes, even 14 girl basketball players) for get togethers!

These girls are the nieces girls ever!  We had pizza, soda, snacks…. Wii dance, Wii sing, DDR, etc.  I even joined in the fun for two songs.

We had cookie cake, games and just a great time talking!  The girls stayed up past 2:00 AM.

In the morning Betsy and Mark made them sausages and home made chocolate chip pancakes (YUM!), and  Cinnamon rolls served with strawberries, milk, water or juice.  The party ended around 12:00 p.m.

What great girls.  Everyone had such a good time and they even put up with me giving them advice from time to time.

Game #23 - Waggener HS

2/17/11 - last game of the regular season before Districts.  Everyone is really excited to play this game.  The girls should win hands down, but without Meghan Welle, it isn't as easy.







The girls have a great game, scoring more each quarter than Waggener, ending 57-42.
1st qtr:  15-8
2nd qtr:  31-19
3rd qtr:  42-30
4th qtr:  57-42.

Jessica had 3 points, 13 rebounds, 2 deflections, 5 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocked shots.

Great game by everyone!

The girls end the season 14-10!  Another winning season.  Now it's time to prepare for districts!

Game #22 - North Bullitt Away

2/11/11 - an away game against North Bullitt High School.  We played them earlier in the year in the Capital One Tournament.  It was good, because we had a chance to play them in their own gym; now it's not foreign to the girls.







The game started out close with NB leading at the end of the first quarter 10-9.  That changed quickly during the second quarter (score 7 more than them) 19-13 at half!  YEAH!  We kept it up the third quarter out scoring them by 4:  31 - 21.  Forth quarter was even - ending 44-34 - OUR WIN!  Nicole scored 22 this game!  It was also nice to see Lucy have a good game.

Jessica had 4 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocked shots!

Valentine's Celebration

2/12/11 - Mark and I knew that Monday night wouldn't be a good night for going out, so we made Valentine's tonight.  It's a funny tale…

Mark knows I love sea food, but the restaurant we wanted to go to doesn't take "call ahead seating."  So, we get there and there is a one hour wait.  Betsy gets the pager, goes to the car to tell Mark, and he decides he doesn't want to wait that long.  Betsy returns the pager and takes their name off the list.  That was at 6:45.

Mark drives around to another restaurant, long wait.  Let's try some other favorites.  So Betsy starts calling … Longhorn 1 1/2 hour wait, ShoGun Japanese Steak House 1 1/2 hour wait, Outback 1 1/2 hour wait, Mitchell Sea Food 45 minute wait, Martini's 45 minute wait.  By now it's 7:10 and Betsy is thinking we should have just stayed at the first place, walked around for 45 minutes and had a delicious meal…

What to do.  Mark gets ever so lucky.  We try one more phone call to Fuji's Japanese Steak House and it's only a 15 minute wait.  We are there!

We had a wonderful time, delicious dinner - I got shrimp and scallops - YUM!  We rented a video and the rest is history!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Game #22 - Atherton

2/11/11 - Oh, My goodness!  What a great game!  This was an amazing breakout game for everyone!

We had already played Atherton during the Christmas tournament and won but knew we could do better.  Today proved it!  Final score 63-25.

First quarter:  we scored first, but then they took the lead with a 3 pointer.  We then took a 6 point lead, only to let them catch up 12-10 at the end of the first quarter.  Second quarter:  was absolutely amazing!  We outscored them 18-3 making the score 31-13.  What a run.  So now the question is … can they keep it up?  Oh yah!  Third quarter was 45-19, and we finished 63-25.

Jessica had an amazing game:  7 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, 1 blocked shot.

She also broke the rebound record for a single season:  It was 213 set by her dear friend Alison Olive.  Jessica now has 214 for the season.  WHOO HOO!!

She owns the board!
the most rebounds in a single game:  17
the most rebounds in a season: 214 (and counting)
the most rebounds of all time:  547 (and counting)

She legitimately is the QUEEN OF REBOUNDS!!!!

Senior Night for Basketball

What an amazing night for JESSICA and LUCY!

It all started at half-time.  Jessica and Lucy were honored at half time.  I knew I was a goner when I started crying while listening to Lucy's remarks.  Then came Jessica.   This is what was announced:

Favorite Sport Memory:  

My favorite memory while playing basketball would have be the Western game of my junior year.  We were down by one with five seconds on the clock. We had possession of the ball and it was passed to me at the free-throw line.  I was just about to shoot it when I saw Lucy cut to the block. I quickly passed it to her and she had an easy lay-up scoring the winning shot. We were both so happy in that moment, jumping and hugging each other, I never want to forget it.

My favorite memory with the team is of course our weekend get-away at the Bryant’s lake house. I loved sitting by the fire watching Disney movies with my team, drinking the most amazing hot chocolate you could ever imagine, and staying up late laughing and talking.  We grow so close over those few days and really come together not only as a team, but as friends.  

Most Influential Adult In Your Life: 

My parents win this one hands down.  They have always been there for me and have supported me every step of the way.  In fact, I probably wouldn’t be playing basketball today if it weren’t for their encouragement and determination to get me to try out in the first place.  They have invested so much of their time and energy coming to all of my games and taking stats for my team.  My mom, as many of you know, makes these little buttons of me and even though they are pretty embarrassing at times, I love them because they show me how much she loves and supports me.  My dad on the other hand is a little more subtle.  He always gives me a pre-game pep talk to pump me up and get me ready to play.  I have begun looking forward to this daddy-daughter time and always feel more prepared and ready to play after them.  I love my parents so much, I wouldn’t trade them for anything.  Thank you mom and dad, you are the best!!!

Plans After High School:

I plan to go to college at BYU where I will study and major in Psychology or Special Education.  

Parting Words To Underclassmen:   Play everyday like it is your last.  Give all you have to give so that when you leave, you have no regrets. It goes by so fast and before you know it it’s all over.  Some of my best memories of high school have been with all of you and I just want you to know that it has meant the world to me.  I love all of you and can’t wait to come back next year and see you.  Play your heart out and never give up no matter what is thrown your way. I’ve had my fair share of injuries and setbacks, but I never let them hold me back. You have so much potential to be the best as long as you do it together.  Be there for your your team because they are the ones who will always have your back. You all have become some of my closest friends.  I love you and will miss you more than you will ever know. 

Words from Parents:  Dearest Jessica,

It has been an amazing 5 years since you started playing basketball in 8th grade. Back in middle school, you were probably the last person off the bench to play in a game if you played at all. You felt like quitting many times but you stuck with it and look where you are today. You have learned many other lessons in life while playing basketball that have made you a better person. You have learned to work hard and give your best effort every single day. You have learned to overcome challenges and be tough in difficult-competitive situations. You have learned the importance of being a team player, learned to lead by example, treating others with respect, while giving encouragement along the way. Most of all you have learned that you can do anything that you put your mind to if you give it the effort, have the passion, and trust in God and yourself. This will give you confidence in the future in anything you pursue.

We are so very proud of you, the good decisions you make each day, the positive influence you have on our family and others.  Our wish is that you will continue to share your beautiful smile every day, even in difficult circumstances that surely will come. Be grateful for the many blessings in life you enjoy, remember and live the values you have learned, and continue to raise the bar for yourself.  You are such a wonderful daughter.  We love you so much and will always be there for you.

Love from Mom & Dad

After the game, the team hosted a reception for the two seniors, JESSICA LOWE and LUCY GIBSON.  Both have been playing ball since 8th grade (Lucy even longer).

coming into the reception with Robert and Marissa

Coach Grimm presenting Locker room stools

Seniors:  Lucy Gibson and Jessica Lowe

Jessica with her parents

Jessica's senior poster

We love you Jessica!

The team had pictures of them, streamers, cake and drinks.  They had a present from all the parents - a framed pictures that all the girls signed (on the matt).  The coaches gave each of the girls a locker room stool. 


There were speeches and congratulations.  There were tears of joy and admiration!  

Game #21 - Southern

2/9/11 - The LAST home game of the season is traditionally SENIOR NIGHT!  It's a big night for the girls as well, they are playing Southern - a team ranked just above them.  They have what it takes to beat them, if they don't fall prey to the pressure of the press.

The first quarter is neck and neck.  Jessica scores the first 2 points and gets the Mustangs on a roll, but then Southern comes back to end the quarter 7-8.  No big deal!  Second quarter we let them pull ahead by 4 more points… 20-25.  Still close, but we need to have a good 3rd quarter.  Well, that was not the way it went, we got down by another 4 points.  27-36.  We came back in the 4th quarter but still lost 36-45.  YUCK!  No one likes to lose on SENIOR night.

Fans! Frannie, Amanda, Paige, and Andrew

Jessica had an amazing game.  It would be so much better if they would look for her on the inside.  She was open for 5-6 lay ups, but didn't get the pass.  She had 9 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and a blocked shot.  She missed two free throws - if she made even one she'd have another double /double.

Preparing for Senior night

You know the day / night will come, but it's just so far off in the future.  Then, by some unknown force of nature the day is suddenly staring at you on the calendar.  It's here.  Jessica's Senior Night for Varsity Basketball is tomorrow night.  Her season is coming to an end - it's the last home game, however they still have three conference games, and at least one district game after senior night.

My heart is full of wonderful and powerful memories of my lovely daughter, Jessica.

New Job for Betsy - at least for a while

Betsy is so excited - she will be the permanent substitute for the chorus teacher at NOMS and NOHS until the permanent teacher recovers from his knee operation.

She is so excited to work with the students.

Game #20 - Trimble County

2/4/11 - Jessica team played a District-seating game Friday night against Trimble in a double-header Varsity match up.  The girl's team played at 6:00 p.m.

What a fantastic game.  The game started out very defensively - ending the first quarter in the loosest scoring game of the season 4-3 (our lead).  Second quarter we were at 16, they were at 13.  AWESOME!  Half time was Senior night for the cheerleaders…it started me thinking about Jessica's senior night coming up next Wednesday.  Can't go there right now…no way!

Great inside shot

Amazing rebound

At the foul line

Third quarter we came our FLAT, only scoring 7, while they had 14 taking the score to 23-27 (their lead).  Time to fight back.  Fourth quarter we came back with vengeance - NOHS girls scored 17 and Trimble scored 8.  But, it wasn't until the last 1:07 minutes of the game that we tied it up 35 all.  Then Nicole made a great 3 point shot 38-35 - NOHS takes the lead.  Trimble has the ball, shoots, Nicole blocks the shot and Jessica gets her 17th rebound.  We go down court to score … The crowd is going wild, the whistle blows…a foul on Nicole - she takes two free throws (makes both).  Final score 40-35!!!

Jessica had a fantastic game:  1 point shy of a double/double.  9 points, 17 REBOUNDS, 2 assists, 1 blocked shot.  She not only had her best night rebounding, she set a new school record for rebounds!  17 in one night!

During 1/2 time of the boys game, they announced that Jessica had over 500 rebounds, and made 17 rebounds in one game - setting a new school record.

WAY TO GO JESSICA!!!!

Game #19 - Spencer County

2/3/11 we finally get the chance to play Spencer County.  Two times prior this year we've been scheduled to play them and both times the game was snowed out.

It was an away game and we are missing Meghan Welle (since her thumb was injured in the game against Bethlehem.

What a great yet physical game.  It was neck and neck for the first 2 quarters, we were down 13-16 at half.  Their #35 was a dirty player; she would clear space with her elbow and she also lowered her shoulder into Jessica several times.  Only one time did the refs call a charge taken - the rest were fouls on Jessica.  So unfair!  The ref's job is to keep the game fair.

The rest of the game went well for NOHS.  Third quarter we came alive scoring 16 points keeping them to 8.  The game ended 45-41.  Last year we beat them 46-42 (almost the same).

Jessica had 4 points, 8 rebounds, 1 deflection, 3 hustle plays, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block shot, and 1 charge taken.