National Deals November 16, 2010

I am now listing all Groupon deals that can be used nation wide, no matter where you live.

$9 for Up to 120 Minutes of VHS/Camcorder Footage Transferred to a DVD at Lifehouse Productions (a $20 Value)
This is the Groupon for Alabama>Mobile/Baldwin

$22 for a 24-Cookie Gift Box from Insomnia Cookies ($50 Value)
This is the side Groupon for Arkansas>Little Rock

$15 for $30 Worth of Candles and Gifts at The Candleberry Company
This is the Groupon for Indiana>Fort Wayne

$19 for a Medium Personalized Bagettes Photo Bag ($41 Value)
This is the side Groupon for Indiana>Indianapolis also New Jersey>North Jersey

$15 for $30 Worth of Chocolates and More at Laura's Candies
This is the Groupon for Louisiana>New Orleans

$25 for Digitized Video and Photos at Reel To Reel Video Inc. ($50 Value)
This is the Groupon for New York>Long Island

$25 for $50 Worth of Baby and Kids’ Toys from Give Wink
This is a side Groupon for New York>New York City

$18 for Two Low-Calorie Pies from Guiltless Pleasure Desserts ($36 Value)
This is the Groupon for North Carolina>Charlotte

$8 for Anti-LeBron James T-Shirt from LeBronJones.com ($21.94 Value)
This is a side Groupon for Ohio>Cleveland

$10 for $20 Worth of Personalized Chocolate Bars Online from Chocomize
This is a side Groupon for Ohio>Toledo

$20 for One Year Subscription to "Sooner Spectator" Sports Magazine
This is the side Groupon for Oklahoma>Oklahoma City

$15 for $50 Worth of Photo Books, Cards, and More from Mixbook
This is the Groupon for Pennsylvania>Allentown/Bethlehem

$12 for $25 Worth of Custom Nutrition Bars, Shakes, Trail Mix, and More from You Bar
This is the Groupon for Pennsylvania>Pittsburgh

$10 for One Hardcover 8"x8", 16-Page Photo Book from Pixable ($30.94 Value)
This is the Groupon for Pennsylvania>Reading

$40 for $100 Worth of Memory Preservation from ScanDigital Photo and Video Digitization
This is the Groupon for Texas>Midland/Odessa

$45 for One 16"x20" Gallery-Wrapped Canvas Including Shipping and Handling from Canvas on Demand ($126.95 Value)
This is the Groupon for Texas>Rio Grande Valley

$39 for a 16"x20" Personalized Canvas Plus Shipping from CafePress ($99.99 Value)
This is the Groupon for Utah>Salt Lake City

August was AWESOME

August was pretty great for us. For me I especially appreciated that I was able to lose 20 pounds! I am able to fit in my goal jeans, and I love it. The a great thing is putting away all the big girl clothes that have been hanging in the closet! But the Joe jeans are the best!
Jerron is now a great crawler and can stand by himself. The first time he actually stood on his own was when I had someone come over so that we could do a newborn photo shoot of her little baby girl. Jerron saw her and I guess he just felt like he needed to show off a bit and so he just stood as he looked at her, although she was really too young to see what he was doing. He is our little flirt, that is for sure!
We have now started our sign language program with Jerron. We are SO excited. Josh and I need to learn them a little first, so far we have learned dad, mom, more, love, Jerron, sleep, handsome, and hungry, just to name a few. If we use these signs correctly we should be able to reduce the frustration that will come from a lack a communication from our baby. I have read a book about it and watched a DVD. The signing DVD was very interesting to Jerron, no other show has ever captured his attention quite the way that this has.
Josh was up for a promotion at Wal-Mart. 17 people applied for the position, one of them actually had the exact position before quitting, but then wanted to come back. They interviewed 4 of those people, including the one that used to be the inventory supervisor. We were so excited when it was made official that Josh was promoted to be the Inventory Supervisor of General Merchandise! He seems to be catching on to the duties pretty well and I am so proud of him for working so hard.
Life is really working out very well for the Beckers in Price. We have 4 new goats now, which means that we now have 3 pregnant pygmies, 2 buck pygmies, 1 whether pygmy and 1 whether mix. The 3 pregnant does are due any day. The one original nanny that we bought back in April looks like she is the furthest along and we have had a few close calls when we thought she was in labor, but so far nothing has come of it.
I have grown up in Carbon County and for the first time ever I attended the Helper Arts Festival. Josh's mom and step-sister made a last minute visit and we went to the festival. It was pretty fun and we had some pretty good food. They had some really old cars that were really awesome, some of the older trucks helped Josh to dream of the truck that he would like to rebuild some day when we can afford it.
Our original birds laid their first eggs this month and it was VERY exciting. We now have more eggs than we can consume, so we will have to up our egg intake.
We are loving our little farm life. Things are looking up and up. We are so grateful for all the blessings that we have!

My Big 27th Birthday!

Josh went all out for my "golden birthday."

Josh had Monday the 26th of July off, so we decided that we better take that day to celebrate my birthday. We headed to my sister's place in Sandy where we dropped off Jerron for the day while Josh and I went out. We stopped at a couple stores, but in the end I just couldn't find anything I just had to have. We headed up to Woods Cross to pick up something I had left at a cabin the weekend before. Then we hurried to Temple Square. We had reservation that we were a bit late for at the Roof Restaurant on top of Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
The view was great and the food was pretty great. The waiter was very nice, but the best part was that it was half price! YAAY! After eating as much as we could take in we went for a walk. We checked out the new Deseret Book across the street. At this point he headed down to Sandy to pick up our little Jer Cub, because Josh had to work early the next morning. It was a great night and the most memorable birthday so far.


The next day we were scheduled to have our basement carpeted. I was very excited about this! WE have been waiting to make sure that our basement would not flood again before we had the carpet put in. The carpet looks wonderful! And besides that we had our house painted a lighter color and things are looking better and better.

2010 Vacation

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Back in November of last year Josh's mom and step-dad decided that they wanted to take a family on a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. They were kind enough to pay for the tickets and get everything in order. The day finally came, June 11, 2010. Josh, Jerron and I went up to SLC the night before and stayed with my brother's family who live in Woods Cross. Unfortunately Jerron became quite sick on the way up and so we stayed up most of the night cleaning up the car seat that he had thrown up all over, then he wouldn't sleep well besides that. We ended up sleeping in a bit and then left my phone that we needed for me to be able to do my homework while we were on the cruise, but we didn't realize we left the phone until we were to the airport, so Sadie, my sister in law, was kind enough to take Josh back and get the phone while I checked in. When Josh got back to the airport we got everything in order while we were in line to go through security we got a call from the gate asking where we were, we told them and Josh hurried through the security and ran to the gate. By the time I got Jerron back in his chair with all of the other carry ons I ran to the gate to see that the plane was leaving, before the time they were supposed to even leave. Long story short we spent another 6 hours in the airport waiting for a plane with room for us. We finally got on a flight and they put us into Dallas Fort Worth for the night. When we got there I was able to use my new phone to get us set up for the night with a nice hotel room and a Dodge Charger. It actually ended up being pretty fun there. We went to a Mongolian Grill for dinner.

We caught a flight out of Dallas very early the next morning and flew into San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Day 1

We got settled into our room and then went to the beach where Jerron had his first time in the sand. We ate dinner at an authentic Puerto Rican place, and on our way back to the hotel found a Cock fighting ring. Turns out cock fighting is the national sport in Puerto Rico. After eating we had a little time to go and get ready for the excursion. It was really great, we went to a different part of the island in a big taxi where we did some kayaking. Not just any kayaking, we did the bioluminescence excursion and it was amazing. In this bay there are these plankton that light up when they are disturbed, it was like being in the movie Avatar. As the oars would cut through the water you would see the water light up. There are only 3 places in the world where you can experience this and it was really something special. We got back to the hotel pretty late. I must say that being driven around in Puerto Rico made me really appreciate the drivers here on the main land, you have no idea what aggressive driving is until you have been to Puerto Rico. Sunday morning we went to Morro Fort and walked around. Then we went took the trolley back to the pier. Josh, Jerron and I stayed on the trolley while everyone else walked a short distance to the pier, but we were able to see a little more of Old San Juan, including a little market with different vendors. Then we boarded the ship and found our way to our room before going to dinner. I ordered a vegetarian Indian plate that was probably my favorite thing the whole cruise. I don’t know what all of the different things were that were in it but I will find out and try to make it myself. For desert I had the chocolate melting cake, it was cook to perfection with just enough cake that was left gooey.

Day 2

The first island was St Thomas. We had our alarms set for 7 am, but we thought that Jerron would probably wake us up earlier than usual just because he wasn’t sleeping in his own crib. During our sail I didn’t think how our phones would be out of range of a signal, nor did it occur to me that this may mess with the time on the phone. I heard people in the hall so I looked at the time and it read 6 AM and I could not understand why they were being so loud so early in the morning. Our room attendant knocked on the door and didn’t get a response because we didn’t want to yell and wake up Jerron, so he walked in saw us and walked out, I looked at the time again and it said it was 630 in the morning. At this point you would think that my brain would have clicked that my phone must be wrong, but no. We just waited for Jerron to wake up. We got ready and headed to breakfast and imagine our surprise to find that it was actually 1:30 before we finished eating, leaving us only 2.5 hours before the ship left the port. We figured we did not have enough time to find a taxi to take us to the other side of the island, swim with the sea lions and get back in time before we left, so we just got back on the ship and I did some homework so that I would not have to worry about it for the rest of the trip. Josh was able to go down the slide once with B and Zach. If we ever get back to this island we are definitely going to make the sea lion swim happen, but oh well. We had fun exploring the ship.

For dinner I ordered the vegetarian plate again. It was ok but not good enough to remember specifics, I think it was a burrito, but I am not sure. I had the chocolate melting cake for desert, it was divine!

Day 3

The second island we went to was Dominica. We were determined to make this island happen! We walked across the street from the pier and found a guy that was willing to take us all over the place for 20 a person or less. We went up to some waterfalls that were amazing, went to some sulphur springs, botanical gardens(which no one should ever pay to go to since it was FREE) and then to a black sand beach where we snorkeled a bit. I forgot to change out the battery in my under water camcorder and so we didn’t get to record any of the fish here. On the way back to the ship the Taxi driver stopped so Josh could jump out and get a fresh Mango, he got two but we gave one to the driver since we didn’t have enough time to eat both of them before getting on the ship.

As we get to the pier I get out the passports for the three of us and the sail cards for Jerron and I but Josh started looking panicked. He starts looking through all of the bags, all his pockets, all the bags again… he had lost his wallet. Because he didn’t have his driver’s license or his sail card he would not be allowed to board the ship, so I went ahead of him looking for his parents, hoping that somehow they had his wallet. NO. I was able to talk to the people at the door and they said they would let him on since his passport had his photo. So he got back on the ship and I went back out looking in the pouring rain for his wallet on the street. No luck. We were drenched. Thank goodness for the kind staff, they held the boat for me to get back and they were just kind the whole time. We had to hurry and change into our formal clothes because it was a formal night at dinner. Unfortunately Josh’s wallet was not found, nor was the cash that was in it, but it didn’t do any good to harp about it, so we just got ready for dinner.

The food was wonderful AGAIN. I had the vegetarian plate again, although I don’t know why. But it was good. After dinner we all went to a show in the theater. Josh and I went and looked at the jewelry just for the fun of it and I found out what Tanzanite was, and I loved it. The shows all week were really fun. But the night that they did the broadway performance wasn’t that impressive to me and it was a little too much stimulation for Jerron, although he loved it at first, we left after about 20 minutes.

Day 4

The next island was Barbados. All of the family went to the same place this time. Bryan and Lillian had already booked a trip to a beach through the cruise so the rest of us just got off the ship and found a Taxi to take us there for only $3 a person each way. When we got there Josh and I rented 2 beach chairs and an umbrella for $15. Then we found a guy who took us out on his glass bottom boat for only $20 for the two of us and the baby. Josh and I jumped in and did a little snorkeling. It was really great! The underwater camcorder was fun for this, although now that I look at the footage I wish I had used it before we left the states a little more so that I could get used to seeing things in it because it was zoomed in for a lot of the footage and it did not turn out very well at all. But we did get some good footage as well. The guy that owned the boat gave us old hard bread and the fish would follow us wherever we would go.

That night we went to the show with the juggler. It was pretty entertaining. I would go watch it again if we had the chance, but probably not something I would pay for. After the juggler was a comedian Percy Crews and he was hilarious. I would pay to see him again. Because it was in the big theater it was a family friendly comedy show.

Day 5

Our next stop was St Lucia and this time it was just Josh, Jerron and I that went on the island together this time. We found a guy just outside the pier and had him give us a tour of the island. He took us to a beach to collect some sand. We saw the college the new hospital and where some sugar cane fields used to be. The tour guide was named Tim and he was very nice and only charged $20 for the whole tour. The only really interesting thing I remember about this island is the fact that you cannot wear camouflage because it is for special forces to wear only. That night we went to the show with the juggler. It was pretty entertaining. I would go watch it again if we had the chance, but probably not something I would pay for.

That night they did the broadway performance of Vroom but it wasn’t that impressive to me and it was a little too much stimulation for Jerron, although he loved it at first, we left after about 20 minutes.

Day 6

Friday was St Kitts. This time we went with Josh’s parents again. As soon as we got off the pier there was a place where they had some guides set up trying to sell us a day of taxi for $40 a person, they would not haggle so we kept walking. Just before the parking lot we found a guy that was willing to do the whole day for $30 a person and so he took us. The first place we went was to the fort, it was pretty cool, but there was quite a hike up the stairs. There is a place at the bottom of the fort that has food and drinks, it was over priced but they did have a drink called Peardrella that was pretty good.

There were cats all over this place, and they were sickly looking. There was quite the view up at the fort. On the way from the fort we saw some of the monkeys that live on the island. We also saw some sheep that have no wool. On the way back to the ship after we left the taxi we were stopped by a guy with a monkey and we took pictures with it for $5, we figured it wasn't that much money and these people could use as much money as possible, besides that I like monkeys.

That night on the ship we saw a magic show by Rand Woodbury and it was very entertaining. He involved children from the crowd which made it that much more fun to watch. In the end he suggested that if you have children while in St Maarten to find the museum of the old Star Wars memorabilia. He had some original tricks, overall it was a pretty good show to see.

While walking around the ship we bought some carrot cake and I have to say it was horrible. The worst carrot cake I have EVER had, don’t waste your money on this. We spent some time in the hot tubs for the adults that night and it was pretty nice. The pizza from the pizza place next to the adult pool has good stuff. Also the hot dogs and hamburgers are pretty good.

Day 7

In St Maarten we wanted to do the sail boat excursion but because of bad weather all the excursions were canceled after 9AM. But we found a taxi to take us to the dutch side to do some shopping, it ended up being about 2 blocks, so you probably would be better off walking if you want to go there. We found a place that was off the main street in an alley and bought Josh a Rolex replica. He got the one that charges when you move your wrist, that only problem with this is that you end having to reset the thing every time you put it down, so every morning, but it is very nice. We spent 40 on it although the guy wanted to charge 60 to begin with. We didn’t really do all that much here, we did get some sea shells from the beach. The rest of the people we went with went on a tour and said it wasn’t worth the money.

On the way back to the ship we stopped at one of the places on the pier and bought a coconut smoothie and it was REALLY awesome. It was just next to the entrance, they were handing out samples. That is worth a stop.

Day 8

We were scheduled to catch a flight just around noon so we were able to get the tags that were closer to the beginning. When we got off the boat we didn’t realize that Josh was wearing a hat that was made out of the palm leaves and it was confiscated by the border station just out side of the ship. You should know that if you don’t want to pay $20 bucks to get to the airport then you need to find someone to split the fare with BEFORE you leave the pier. Once you get outside if the people working out there hear you looking for someone to split the fair with they will give you a citation. I’m not sure why it is that big of a deal, but it is. The fare is set at $20 for a taxi to the airport and $1 a bag.

Once we got the airport is where all the fun really started. We had them scan our luggage to make sure we weren’t smuggling any fruit or something like that. Then we went to check in… surprise, surprise our flight was canceled and they couldn’t get us to SLC that day. So they booked us a night at the hotel that is in the airport and gave us some food vouchers… to top it off they put us in first class.

Extra day 1

That night Josh’s younger sister and younger brother and his wife stayed in the room with us because they had planned to stay an extra day but did not book a hotel. So it worked out pretty well for them. We dropped off all of the luggage and then we called Pepi, the taxi driver we used all of the time in Puerto Rico, and went to Old San Juan. This cost $18 for 6 people including our 7 month old infant. We walked around down by the vendors. They were having some get together with music and dancing, it was pretty cool. There was an awesome fountain that was not working down there too. They we went and ate at these authentic place that was THE BEST meat I have ever had. They served it a little different but man it was good with some friend plantains and rice in a deep wooden bowl that looked more like a mug. The place was called Raices, it was a little bit expensive, about $18 a plate but well worth it to us. Josh’s brother and sister both ordered the pork chops and they were really great. I don’t remember what else was ordered. It was Father’s Day so it wasn’t the usual menu, but I don’t know what was different about it.

After we ate we were ready to go back to the hotel and so I stopped a taxi and asked how much it would be for 6 people, he said 20. When we were getting out he changed his mind about how much it was, he wanted to charge us another $5 for the car seat. The dumb thing is that it should have been $18 because the prices are set down there but this guy was just trying to rip us off. My brother-in-law was even gave the guy $23 but the guy was being a jerk so he took back the $3 and we walked away. The taxi driver started yelling at someone at the curb stopped us and asked what was going on, we told him and he waved the driver on. We all thought we would go get in the hot tubs when we got back but they close them at 6, so we just all settled in for the night.

Unfortunately that night our baby’s cold just escalated and he began screaming. He would sometimes sleep for an hour and then wake up screaming in obvious pain. It was a long night. We caught our flight at 7AM and weren’t even able to use all of our meal vouchers because we were so afraid we were going to miss our flight. But it all worked out just fine. We had one lay over in ATL for an hour or so and then on to SLC.

It was so much fun! Although we had the most trouble with random problems on the trip I think we have some of the best memories and will be laughing about our luck for years to come! My only regret is that our clocks were so off and we missed the one excursion we really wanted to go on the first island at Corral World where we would have swam with the sea lions. It turned out that our baby had an ear infection, which was pretty obvious when it all happened, he was completely off his schedule when we came home. He would sleep through the night since he was 8 weeks old but it took over a month after this trip to get him back on his schedule. We would definitely do this trip again.

If anyone has any idea how they cook the food at Raices I would LOVE to hear from you. That was really awesome! I would consider doing a trip our to PR just for that food and the wonderful sand that they have there. We collected sand from each island but somehow lost the sand from St Thomas and St Lucia, so if anyone gets the chance to get out there and wants to send some our way I would gladly pay the so we can put some of the 4oz mason jars next to the ones we already have.

Sealed At Last

It has been a very busy month for us. First we had Josh's dad and step-mom come and spend Easter weekend with us, which was the last blog entry.

The next weekend Jerron was given a blessing in church. After the blessing we went to Dusten and Shannon's(Jaclyn's brother and sister-in-law) home to have a brunch before going and taking the first Heugly family picture in over 5 years. The last time the Heuglys took a family picture was just before Jaclyn left to serve a mission in Pittsburgh. Since that last photo there had been 4 children and 1 adult added to the brood.

On April 26th we celebrated the 2 year anniversary of the beginning of the Joshua and Jaclyn Becker family. The next day was Josh's 28th birthday. For Josh's birthday we brought home two goats, the female is a pygmy nanny we named Franny, the male is a medium sized mix named Marvin. On the 28th Josh's mom and sister, Michelle, were passing through town and so we were able to meet Jerron's cousin Dawson, who is 2 days older than him, for the first time. Then we ended the month on the best note possible.

Sealed At Last, Sealed At Last, Thank Heaven All Mighty, We're Sealed At Last!

2 years and 4 days after being married we entered the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' Salt Lake Temple to be sealed as a family for the rest of Eternity. We arrived at the temple at 4 PM. We dropped off Jerron at the temple nursery where two sweet older women cared for him while we filled out the necessary paperwork. When we met the man that would be doing the sealing we found out that he served as a mission president of the Philadelphia mission at the same time that I was serving as a missionary in Pittsburgh and he knew my first mission president. It seemed we had an instant connection and his words were spot on. He had a great energy and spirit about him.
As Jerron was brought into the room it was a great feeling and realization that no matter what happens here we could not be kept from being with one another as long as we are true and faithful to our covenants. We have been so blessed by the gospel and the atonement.
I am so proud of Josh for the husband and father that he is. I consider myself to be the luckiest woman on Earth. He works so hard to support us, and what more could we ask of him. Our home is filled with the love that God has intended for us all to feel.

After the sealing we were so glad to have our good friends Shaun and Jamie Kjelstrom and Jeannie Lynch come home with us to spend time with us. They headed back home to the Pasadena area on Sunday morning. It was so great to spend time with them. It was at Shaun and Jamie's wedding last year that we found out that we had little Jerron on the way as we celebrated our first anniversary. Now as they celebrated their first anniversary they spent the weekend with us and came to our sealing.

God has truly been great to us. I am so grateful for such a wonderful supportive family and friends. For whatever reason we have truly been blessed and it has not gone unnoticed. We look forward to every new development in our lives. Now I am finding myself getting into the photography business and it is an exciting new development for us. All the photos on our blog have been taken by me.

Our Blessing is Blessed

The month of April has been very busy for the Beckers of Price. For Easter we were happy to have Josh's dad(David) and step-mom(Keri) come to visit us all the way from Spokane, Washington. We were able to fix up our tandem bike when David bought us new handle bars, seats and tubes. It was so fun riding it around with our new little trailer behind it, it was my Deseret Industries find a couple weeks earlier.

The first of April we brought home 3 chicks and 2 ducklings, pictures to come lately.


Jaclyn's family got together for this weekend to celebrate a late Easter and have a kite flying contest. We also took family pictures after Jerron's blessing. I can't believe how many people we have in our family now. 2 people had 5 little humans, 30+ years later those people have added more little people so many so that we now amount to a whopping 27 human beings.










This weekend our sweet little Jerron was blessed in church by Josh. It was a great blessing. Josh's mom, step-dad, grandma, step-grandpa, and sister's family all came for the blessing as well as the whole Heugly clan. We had a lovely brunch that they all put together and it turned out so well. We are so grateful to each family that brought something for the brunch and especially Dusten and Shannon for allowing us to have the party at their home.

Now it's time to get the yard ready so we can not use our broken lawn mower. We already purchased our seeds for our soon to be garden. We are really excited for this up coming spring and all the fun we will have in building our chicken coop, getting our garden up and going and carpeting the basement!