Post previews on static front page?

I’m currently customizing this purchased template:

http://www.templateaccess.com/wpdemos/wp18/

The preview made it look like the boxes in the bottom were blog post previews but they’re note. If you look at the page template MyHome.php that comes with it, all of those boxes are hard coded.

I’ve made some tweaks but so far it’s basically the same. The site’s not live as my client wants to keep the placeholder index.html up, though you can see the home page at http://www.tedsmanhattancycles.com/indexnew.php. Here is the code for the template. Is there a plug-in or some coding I can do rather than hard-coded text?

<?php
/*
Template Name: MyHome
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?>
<div id="slider">
  <!-- start slideshow -->
  <div id="slideshow">
    <div class="slider-item"><a href="#"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/simple_img_1.jpg" alt="icon" width="951" height="323" border="0" /></a></div>
    <div class="slider-item"><a href="#"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/simple_img_2.jpg" alt="icon" width="951" height="323" border="0" /></a></div>
    <div class="slider-item"><a href="#"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/simple_img_3.jpg" alt="icon" width="951" height="323" border="0" /></a></div>
  </div>
  <div class="clr"></div>
  <!-- end #slideshow -->
  <div class="controls-center">
    <div id="slider_controls">
      <h2>The Home For South Bay Bicycles Since 1960.<br />
        <span>Other placeholder text about Ted's Manhattan Cycles. It's a great place to get bikes! </span></h2>
      <ul id="slider_nav">
        <li><a href="#"></a></li>
        <!-- Slide 1 -->
        <li><a href="#"></a></li>
        <!-- Slide 2 -->
        <li><a href="#"></a></li>
        <!-- Slide 3 -->
      </ul>
    </div>
    <div class="clr"></div>
  </div>
  <div class="clr"></div>
</div>
<div class="body">
  <div class="FBG">

<!-- begin middle bar -->

    <div class="bloog"> <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/fbg_1.gif" width="46" height="46" alt="images" />
      <h2>Official Colgnago Distributor</h2>
      <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius<a href="#"> pagus</a></p>
      <h2>&nbsp;</h2>
    </div>
    <div class="bloog"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/fbg_2.gif" width="46" height="46" alt="images" />
      <h2>Electra Beach Cruisers</h2>
      <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius<a href="#"> pagus</a></p>
    </div>
    <div class="bloog last"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/fbg_3.gif" width="46" height="46" alt="images" />
      <h2>360&deg; Bike Service and Repair</h2>
      <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius<a href="#"> pagus</a></p>
    </div>
    <div class="clr"></div>
  </div>

<!-- Begin small boxes -->

  <div class="left first">
    <h4>Box 1 <br />
      <span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut</span></h4>
    <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/port_1.jpg" alt="left_img" width="218" height="164" />
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius pagus. </p>
    <p> <a href="#">Read more &raquo;</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="left">
    <h4>Box 2 <br />
      <span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut</span></h4>
    <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/port_2.jpg" alt="left_img" width="218" height="164" />
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius pagus. </p>
    <p> <a href="#">Read more &raquo; </a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="left">
    <h4>Box 3 <br />
      <span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut</span></h4>
    <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/port_3.jpg" alt="left_img" width="218" height="164" />
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius pagus. </p>
    <p> <a href="#">Read more &raquo;</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="left last">
    <h4>Box 4 <br />
      <span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut</span></h4>
    <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/port_4.jpg" alt="left_img" width="218" height="164" />
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius pagus. </p>
    <p> <a href="#">Read more &raquo;</a></p>
  </div>
<!-- hide boxes 5 - 8 

  <div class="left first">
    <h4>Box 5 <br />
      <span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut</span></h4>
    <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/port_5.jpg" alt="left_img" width="218" height="164" />
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius pagus. </p>
    <p> <a href="#">Read more &raquo;</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="left">
    <h4>Box 6 <br />
      <span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut</span></h4>
    <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/port_6.jpg" alt="left_img" width="218" height="164" />
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius pagus. </p>
    <p> <a href="#">Read more &raquo;</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="left">
    <h4>Box 7 <br />
      <span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut</span></h4>
    <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/port_7.jpg" alt="left_img" width="218" height="164" />
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius pagus. </p>
    <p> <a href="#">Read more &raquo;</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="left last">
    <h4>Box 8 <br />
      <span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut</span></h4>
    <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/port_8.jpg" alt="left_img" width="218" height="164" />
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sit diam ut sed jus consequat nunc incassum fatua, sed genitus, virtus, saepius pagus. </p>
    <p> <a href="#">Read more &raquo;</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="clr"></div>
</div>

-->

<!--/body -->
<?php get_footer(); ?>