Creating a sandbox copy of current site - without images - best way
Ning To Jamroom
With JR Hosting, when you create a server a JR install is automatically created at a URL something like claygorndan1.jamroomhosting.com
You can then create anoth JR install with the domain thechocolatelife.com and that will be visible at thechocolatelifecom.jamroomhosting.com
When you then point the actual domain DNS servers to jamroomhosting you can then switch the second install to its real domain.
I believe that Brian has offered to move your site over When JR hosting is fully set up, users will be able to do that themselves from the hosting control panel, so maybe if you can wait for that then you'll be able to copy the site to both JR installs, assuming it ends up working that way.