You're very welcome!
And sorry about my own generalization. I had come from a really kind of mean post on the DPReview forum about "people who know nothing about photography just bothering all of us professionals for free photography lessons" and was probably very much oversensitized.
Don't worry about it. We're something of a family here, actually (at least, it certainly feels that way). This is a very friendly place, and that's actually something of an anomaly on the internet. Even so, it doesn't hurt to have a strong stomach here!
The dpreview.com forums are famous for being rather unfriendly. They are excellent for technical discussions, though. But technical discussions generally require that one have something of a strong spine and an open mind all at the same time, because they tend to revolve around things that can be proven in one way or another, and the participants tend to place very high value on correctness.
The forum here on POTN is much friendlier, but you tend not to see as much in the way of ultra-technical discussions here (and by that, I mean discussions about things like signal to noise ratios, read noise versus shot noise, etc. -- basically, things that would make most people's eyes glaze over). And that's fine -- we're here to talk about photography, and how to get the best (most pleasing) results we can.
I actually have the Canon 55-250mm IS lens - it was one of my first purchases for my own bag.
That is an awesome lens. I predict you won't be getting rid of it. It's far too convenient, especially given its image quality. There's faster glass out there, of course, but it comes with its own set of tradeoffs (both in terms of cost and in terms of convenience of use).
Hubby insisted on having a DSLR (and is strictly a green square shooter - DRIVES ME NUTS - won't even get OUT of the CAR to take pictures. A tourist if ever there was one. I got him the Sigma 50-200mm lens and it is a heavy, okay lens. He doesn't blow up any image beyond 4x6, so he has more than too much camera at this point already. Hoping when I finally choose to upgrade on bodies he doesn't want to follow me.
LOL! Well, you could always try to teach him the basics so that at least he'll get out of green box mode. Maybe he'll eventually figure out that if you want to take photographs and not just snapshots, you have to take control of the camera.
I know I could have much better equipment. What I have is what I can afford now and I can still get good pictures with it.
It's not so much about the equipment as it is what you do with the equipment. If you improve enough, you'll be able to get results from your relatively inexpensive gear that will rival the images taken with much more expensive gear. Honestly, camera gear is no different than most other things: you pay a lot more to get only incremental improvements. The capability of even the lowest end DSLRs today is so great that it is hard to be limited by it. I find that autofocus is really the sole exception to that, and even that is something that depends greatly on what you're photographing.
As much as I like to bag on the 5Dmk2's autofocus system, for instance, it is adequate for most things.
Hoping to keep learning though - I AM new to D-SLR, just not new to photography. So there IS much to learn, but I'm not someone who got a DSLR, didn't even know there was a photographic triangle or what it contained and decided that I should be a professional photographer...
Digital photography has much more in common with film photography than it has differences. All the fundamentals are the same: effects of shutter speed, depth of field, exposure, film or sensor sensitivity, composition methods, lighting, etc. There are some digital-specific techniques ("exposure to the right", crop factor adjustments for focal length versus angle of view and for recommended shutter speed to eliminate camera shake, examination and proper interpretation of the histogram, etc.) and some techniques which are the result of newer technology but which are equally applicable to both film and digital (mainly, how to effectively use image stabilization).
In any case, the bottom line is that your previous photographic training should serve you very well. It's very easy to crave better gear (Lord knows I've gone through my share of that myself), but hopefully you'll reach a point where I no longer do, really, before you're completely broke. 
I've more or less reached that point myself. The camera I use (the 7D) helps enormously in that respect, because it's like shooting with a mini-1D, and its image quality is quite good in my opinion, even if some people do disagree.
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