1) when there are two numbers in a lens designation, such as "18-55" or "70-300", they refer to the lens's zoom range. The low number is the "wide end", the higher number the "telephoto" end. If you want to see and/or focus on stuff that is "far away", you need a lens with a high(er) telephoto number. Generally any lens that goes out to 250 or more is considered a telephoto lens. The drawback to a nice big telephoto lens is that they may not be able to focus on closer stuff.

Many telephotos are used for wildlife - birds, small animals, etc that are 'far away' compared to, say, a flower in your garden or your Aunt Mabel in the porch swing.

A lens with just ONE number is called a 'prime' lens, as it does not 'zoom' between wide and telephoto like a 55-250 lens or similar. Prime lenses USUALLY provide a slightly better image quality, but they are also sometimes more expensive. Some picture-takers will say to you, "Buy a prime lens and zoom with your feet" but that is not always good advice when it translates to "walk up closer to that grizzly bear".

The other set of numbers you often see are the maximum apertures available at the wide-angle and telephoto ends of the lens. For example, "f/4.5 - 5.6 100-400mm" is translated to mean "you can open up your aperture to a maximum of f/4.5 at 100mm and a maximum of f5.6 at 400mm".

What THAT means is that your aperture (the thing that lets in light) can open to f4.5 if the lens is at 100mm, but can only open to f5.6 when you're zoomed out at 400mm.

What THAT means is that the farther out you go, the more the light-gathering ability of your lens is LIMITED by how far open the aperture can get. When the light-gathering ability is limited, you need to leave the shutter OPEN for a longer length of time to compensate.

Remember, in aperture numbers, the higher the number, the smaller the opening. f/2 is REALLY BIG, f/22 is a little tiny hole.

In a perfect world, you could buy a lens that is an f/1.0 12-12000mm super dooper wide angle telephoto for about $87 brand new, but that ain't gonna happen.

It is always a compromise between cost and functionality. If you've got about 10 grand to drop on a lens, check out the Canon 1200mm beast. That's the one you see in the end zone of all the football games. Sports Illustrated and ESPN own them all. :)

More down to earth, a 70-300mm lens will be a good basic entry level piece of glass that you can probably get for under $300 or so. If you have about $800 to $1000 to spare, or you can successfully stick up your local 7-11 without being identified, the Canon 100-400mm lens is a fan favorite, and can be had now on eBay for a decent price, since the new Model II of this lens has just come out for $2000 and everybody who owns one of the older models is selling theirs to buy the new one. Don't be like arm-hair Rob Lowe, if you know what I mean.

The newish Tamron 150-600mm lens is also creating much buzz in the field, but they are fairly hard to find since evidently, Tamron makes them one at a time in some hut in the middle of Thailand.

Oh, and all the other nonsense you see with lens descriptions is usually just marketing BS, like "ED DO FS VS VC DI IS" and all that other crap. IS or VC is "Image Stabilization" or "Vibration Compensation", which won't matter to you since you'll be using a tripod, won't you? Nod your head 'yes'.

Most of the other crap has to do with coatings on the lens glass and or how many ball bearings there are in the zoom sleeve. Don't worry about it.

Welcome to the Hog Nancy,
Do you have a community college nearby that you can sign up for a coupla classes to learn your basics first? Learn how to use your camera buttons and which one controls what. I think when I started a wedding photographer was teaching a BASIC photography class. It was somewhere around 99.00 for 5 classes. Someone physically telling you and showing you just the basics from the start saves a lot of frustration( along with other newbies asking questions you didn't think of), and you will have more AHAAAA moments as you use the basic skills they teach you. It was a few coins well invested.
Just my 2 cents to help you enjoy my favorite hobby.
Mike :D