Features

Editor’s note: The Lancaster News is tracking the progress of Katie Stogner and Jeff Holden as they undertake the Island Sun Tanning and Fitness 12-week Challenge for 2012. Here is their second progress report. You can also follow their progress at stevelewisplan.com.
Katie’s story
Four weeks down and I am so glad I did this. I have made some serious progress already, although I have a long way to go. I tend to be a little impatient, so to finally see some significant changes really helps me focus.

On March 12, Girl Scouts will celebrate its 100th anniversary.          And for a little more than 80 of those years, many of their troop activities have been funded by selling cookies. 

Those cookies – Thin Mints, Shortbreads, Peanut Butter Sandwich, Peanut Butter Patties, Lemonades, Shout Outs, Thanks–A–Lots and Caramel deLites – become household words this time of year.

Just steps away from the busy hubbub of the Lancaster County Courthouse and County Administration buildings, Justice Java offers a quiet getaway.  

With a name like Justice Java, you may assume all they offer is coffee. However, this quaint little cottage offers everything from a light lunch to a glass of wine to cap off your workday.   

The zigzagged walkway with brick inserts is edged in nandinas in brilliant reds, along with evergreen topiaries trimmed in swirls or neatly rounded sections. 

Father Christmas is truly long gone, but is the weight still here? 

If the answer is yes, then it’s time to detox (detoxify). 

A good detox can help you loose weight easily, boost your health points, shed up to 5 pounds a week safely and gain sound knowledge for lasting health. You can get that Jennifer Hudson look without counting the points. 

The problem is what is a good Detox program? 

I have often heard it said that “change is good.”

In the last 70-plus years, I have found out that some promises of change backfire.

New ain’t always better.

As soon as my daughter’s broken leg heals, I’m gonna ask her if the “new” leg is an improvement over the old one.

I’ve been keeping track of the CNN storm that fell on Lancaster.

Damien Ward had heard enough.

Ward had already been on the dance floor several times Saturday night at the Fairway Room with his dressed-to-the-nines daughters, Emeliana, 6, and Olivia, 5, at the annual Girl Scouts Father Daughter Dance.

Emeliana is a member of Daisy Troop 2339 and Olivia is a Girl Scout in the making.  Second-generation Girl Scouts, their mom is Emily Evans Ward, who earned her Gold Award.

I know beach sand doesn’t mix with frosty window panes and cold mornings, but bless Pete, I was ready for a change.

So when Uncle Harry mentioned riding to the coast, I was all for it. Uncle Harry’s friend, Dr. Brown and his smoking buddy, Mr. Plyler, hatched the plan.

“Harry, you ought to take a few days off from lawyering and so something different,” Dr. Brown said.

For Katie Stogner, here and now is the stream of sweat beads dripping from her chin onto the rubber floor of Island Sun Tanning and Fitness on Pageland Highway as owner Steve Lewis encourages her through a grinding workout. Captured on video, there is no place for her to hide  the here and now.

Stogner’s future is wearing that pair of black leather pants hanging in the closet of her Indian Land home.

But to do that, she hopes to lose 30 pounds, much of it coming from the birth of her son, Thaxton, on Dec. 7.

The statewide late winter/early spring wildfire season is still about a month away but the S.C. Forestry Commission has launched a safety campaign so those planning to burn can take the appropriate steps.

The seasonal outlook for the next few months indicates an increasing potential for high wildfire activity for most of the Palmetto State.

Although it may not seem like it due to recent rainfall, precipitation amounts for this portion of the Piedmont are already about 1.2 inches below normal.