Here's a really good page to look through which lists cameras based on how you think you might be using them. http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm Katrina Kennedy at Capture Your 365 has awesome and pretty inexpensive photography classes too and even has a ton of free posts over at the Daily Digi that are super informative.
I recently joined a photography forum called ClickinMoms and I love it! It's an incredible resource. You don't need to be a mom to join (I'm not), but most (though not all) of the members are women. It is a paid membership to the forum, but you can do a free trial, I believe, and they have lots of free info on the blog. I loved it so much I got the lifetime membership. They also have some wonderful online classes - it's only been a month, but it has already started to transform my photography! I love that the community is very welcoming and supportive (I've heard that's not always the case with photography forums). Another resource to check out is Katrina Kennedy's Capture Your 365. She has online photo classes and tips on her blog. I took one of her classes and it was good, but not as in-depth as the ClickinMom classes. Her classes are also cheaper than the CM classes, so it depends on what you're looking for. My brief impression is that Katrina's classes are more for beginners and scrappers who want to learn manual mode on their cameras. ClickinMoms has that in its intro classes, but it's more geared to folks who are or aspiring to be pro photographers and avid hobbyists.
