By Meg Burns, Blush Beauty Lounge Have you heard of brow lamination? It is a brow treatment that continues to gain popularity because of its amazing results. I thought it would be helpful to give you an overview of the service and what you need to know. Let’s break it down! Why do people love brow lamination and what is it? People continue to fall in love with brow lamination because it gives your eyebrows a fuller look. Often, as we age our eyebrows become thinner. Not only that, but the hairs start to compress together giving the illusion of brows that are even thinner than they actually are. Brow lamination is a chemical process that straightens the eyebrow hairs so that your brows look fuller and thicker. One of the most common things we hear from clients after their brow lamination is that they didn’t even realize how many brow hairs they actually had or how full they could be! What is the process like? During a brow lamination, your esthetician will start by cleaning your brows and removing any makeup. That is followed by a three-step process where the esthetician will apply different products to your brows. Each step of the process will sit on your brows for a bit depending on the texture of your eyebrow hairs. While the products are working, they will brush through your brows periodically to make sure all of the hairs are being treated. Most clients choose to get an eyebrow tint... Read More

 Listening to music while working out is an ideal boredom breaker, but did you know it can also boost your athletic performance and make your hard-earned hours in the gym even more effective? Let’s look at a few of the benefits of music during exercise and how to build a motivational workout playlist to suit your session. The Benefits of Music with Exercise More Optimism: The largest (and possibly most rewarding) benefit of listening to music during exercise is that it promotes a positive attitude. In February 2020, a team of researchers published an article in Psychological Bulletin that reviewed different studies on music and exercise. They found that people who listened to music while exercising felt more positive no matter how intense the workout or their experience level. Push Harder: Listening to your playlist of workout motivation music has also been shown to reduce what gym-goers call “RPE” or “rate of perceived exertion” and discomfort. This is a scale from 1-10 which rates how difficult you found the exercise, and how many more repetitions you have left in yourself at the end. A study found that listening to your preferred music genre created improvements in maximum strength, endurance, and a reduced RPE rating. Exercise feels easier with music! In the Mood to Groove: The more rhythmic and groovy the music, the more we want to move, nod our heads, tap our feet, or break out into dance. A study in Brain Cognition found that “high groove” music activates the... Read More

 We all hear that olive oil is good for us, but the quality of olive oil can vary vastly between typical grocery store olive oils and true 100% extra virgin olive oils. Extra virgin, by definition, means the olives must be “without defect” and must be crushed within 24 hours of being picked. These olives provide great health benefits – protection against heart disease and cancer, reduction of inflammation, improved cognitive function, and more joint mobility among other things. However, to be labeled extra virgin, most commercial olive oil bottles only need to contain 12% extra virgin olive oil. The rest can be olive oil made from old, poor quality and even rancid olives, providing little health benefit. Even worse, it can contain other oils such as soy and canola without listing these oil’s as ingredients. Choose wisely. Look for the actual crush date and the polyphenols (the most important component of olive oil). If this information is not available, don’t trust the source. Emerald Coast Olive Oil gets fresh Northern or Southern Extra Virgin Olive Oils every six months making it among the freshest and finest olive oils in the world – maximum flavor and maximum health benefits. Stop by our store and taste before you buy! Healthy Olive Oil Muffins With Coconut Drizzle Recipe Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 3 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt ¾ cup white sugar 1 egg 1 cup milk ¼ cup Persian Lime, Lemon, Blood Orange or Unflavored Olive Oil 2-3 tablespoons... Read More

 By Bill Husfelt, Superintendent, Bay District Schools When most people think of Bay District Schools, they think of schools for students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade but did you know we also run a very successful technical college? Tom P. Haney Technical College offers hands-on learning programs to hundreds of students each year, and their graduates are employed throughout Bay County, the state of Florida, and really across our nation. While the Haney Technical College programs are geared towards adults and those interested in learning new careers, the college also welcomes new high school graduates who are interested in learning a trade or getting a head start in the work world with an industry certification. While many of our new graduates are ready to go off to college or university to pursue degrees, others aren’t sure yet about what they want to do, and Haney can offer some amazing alternatives to the traditional college route. Currently, according to industry experts, students who graduate with industry certifications in areas like welding, HVAC, and airframe mechanics can expect to be offered salaries in the $50,000-$100,000 range with zero experience. It’s hard to argue with that math! You can read more about salaries for those options at https://financesonline.com/trade-school-college-statistics. So, please take a few minutes this week to share the Haney options with the high school graduates in your families, neighborhoods, and churches… we want to make sure as many students as possible take advantage of these amazing programs right here at home, and... Read More

 Marta Rose-Thorpe: Where did you grow up? How long have you lived in the area? Tell us about your family. Dean: I grew up in a suburb of Buffalo NY, home of the Buffalo Bills. My family and I moved to Panama City on November 22 after separating from the US Army and wanting to come back to the greatest state in America! My family consists of my beautiful wife Diana and two children, Stonewall, 8, and Rylee, 3. Marta Rose-Thorpe: Tell us about the events that led up to where you are now. Dean: I spent my childhood in a suburb of Buffalo, learning the meaning of hard work from my parents. I joined the Army in 2010 and met my wife shortly after while in school for the Army. We deployed to Afghanistan in 2012. When we returned, I took a job as a police officer in Tucson, Arizona, where our son was born in 2015. We moved back to NY to finish out our service in the Army and had our daughter in 2020. We decided we wanted to start our own business and raise our kids in the best and most free state… Florida. So here we are, ready to make Panama City clean again! Marta Rose-Thorpe: What is your business? Dean: Old Glory Washing Solutions is an exterior cleaning business. I pressure wash, soft wash, roof clean, house wash, window wash, and pretty much anything dirty outside I clean. I love the outdoors and the... Read More

 By Julie McConnell, UF/IFAS Extension Five months ago, we experienced severe cold weather for three days which impacted landscapes across the panhandle. Since prolonged deep freezes are not common in our area we were unable to predict how plants would fare long term. As we progress into spring, it’s a good time to start assessing landscape plants and make decisions about what to keep and what to replace. The plants we have received the most inquiries about at my office are citrus trees. Unfortunately, this category of beloved plants is difficult to protect and suffered dearly. The recommendation up to now has been to be patient and give them time to recover, but when should you stop waiting and what signs should you look for? New Growth Obvious signs to look for are new leaves and stems, but the long-awaited appearance of green may not indicate recovery. Below are some guidelines you can use to interpret spring flushes. Leaves and stems emerging in the canopy are a good sign if it expands fully and hardens off. This is a good sign of recovery because it indicates the trunk and woody branches are still alive. Ensure the tree has adequate water if rainfall is insufficient and if you fertilize do so sparingly. New foliage in the canopy that dies before it fully expands indicates that the wood it was growing from was significantly injured. The failed regrowth is a secondary symptom of the initial freeze damage. Does that mean the tree... Read More

 By Paul Bonnette For the past forty years, Shipwreck Island Waterpark has been the place to plunge, dunk, slide, swim and float in Panama City Beach. Known for its famous water rides such as the Zoom Flume, Lazy River, the Wave Pool, and many more, Shipwreck Island has three million gallons of water for you to splash around in. This fifteen-acre tropical waterpark has been a must-do attraction for visitors and locals of all ages for decades: on April 29th Shipwreck Island opened the gates for its 40th anniversary season. Although 2023 will be Shipwreck Island’s 40th anniversary season, plans go back even further to the developer, visionary, and builder of Miracle Strip Amusement Park, James Lark. According to General Manager Buddy Wilkes who has been with the family-owned company for decades, Shipwreck Island started with one single ride. “It started in 1976 when James Lark built the Zoom Flume. If you traveled the interstate highway system, you would see family RV campgrounds and they would all have a waterslide.”This gave Lark a crazy idea for an attraction, which would become the Zoom Flume, which, although updated, is still one of the most popular rides at Shipwreck. Over the next several years, even more rides were added including the Rapid River Run and Skull Island pool with Bumper Boats. According to Wilkes, in 1983, these rides would merge into the tropical-themed park we know today, but with a slightly different name: “So we had three water attractions and we called... Read More

 By Sean Dietrich I am an imaginary old man. I am every World War II veteran you never knew. I am each faceless GI from the bygone European War. Or any other war for that matter. I am in my 90s and 100s now. Lots of young folks probably don’t even know I exist. In my war, I was one of the hundreds of thousands of infantrymen, airmen, sailors, marines, mess sergeants, seabees, brass hats, engineers, doctors, medics, buck privates and rear-echelon potato-peelers. We hopped islands in the Pacific. We served in the African war theater. We beat the devil, then we came home and became the old fart next door. Wartime was one heck of an era to be young. Let me tell ya. When we went overseas we were still teenagers, smooth skinned, scared spitless, with government haircuts, wearing brand new wedding rings. We hadn’t seen action yet, so we were jittery and lots of us smoked through a week’s rations of Luckies in one day. Then it happened. It was different for everyone, but it happened. Shells landed everywhere. People screamed. And in a moment our fear melted away and we had war jobs to do. It didn’t matter who we were or which posts were ours. Everyone worked in the grand assembly line of battle. When the smoke cleared and the action was over, we had new confidence in ourselves and we were no longer boys. And anyway, we weren’t just boys, we were girls, too.... Read More