Wait! Don't clear out your hard-drive!! You have some very good elements here. I don't know if you have any photo software yet, but when you do, these great shots only need a little tweeking.
Of course, the idea is to take the perfect shot every time, but we know that's impossible for most of us. :-) So save the most interesting ones (or hardest to get - I still don't have a hummingbird!!) and work on them later. I did a quick fix on two: cropped away some background so your subject takes up more of your picture, and cloned away the green stem and distracting whiteness. I like the colors in the rose shot, but the petals are faded and brown, and there's nothing you can do for that. Only shoot pristine flower heads for really great florals. Have fun and keep shooting. It gets better all the time!!

Macro photography can really hook you, can't it? These are the kind of shots that really encourage you to keep going! If I were to offer only one suggestion I would say to try and get the full insect in the shot. Its hard because they are so quick, but work at it. Try to include the whole wing, the legs and the antennae. I didn't know that until someone told me and when I look at great macro photography, I see it right away. Have fun and keep shooting!!

I was referring to the orange zinnia. I thought my comment would come out under the picture:)

Since this shot is so strong graphically and the flower head is firmly planted in the middle, I would crop it as a square and frame it ala Pottery Barn.

Another easy way to remember f stops is:

small f stop gives a small amount of focus - just the subject in the foreground, blurs the background.

large f stop gives a large amount of focus - all the way back to the mountains, lots of detail in the background

Cameras give the best overall quality in the middle - f stop (8, 9, 10). That's why point and shoots are set that way.

Changing f stops let's you have more control and be more creative.

Good book suggestion. I took Bryan's class of the same name on
www.ppsop.com and it gave me a good base of knowledge to build on. Check out his books, site and You Tube videos.

I agree with the others. You have a good eye for composition.
Start saving up for a Nikon DSLR. I have a D90 and a Coolpix too.
You will have so many more creative options with the DSLR including lenses, filters, etc. Plus the manual settings on it are
MUCH EASIER to use than on the Coolpix. I teach classes at my local library on both types of cameras and tell my students that a point and shoot is just that: a great camera for quick shots with no fiddling. I always have it in my handbag. But a DSLR is a photographer's dream :) And you ARE a photographer.

Was it actually coming "out of" the mushroom or could it be drops of sap from the tree above? Either way, very cool shot.

I love the shot with the child and your mom also. You can see a real connection there and a shared moment. In critiques of some of my work, it was pointed out that eyes looking down, as with
the couple, you don't make a connection and you can't tell what they are looking at either. You can really see the difference in your pair of images. I think the couple should be looking either at each other or directly at you.

Make the leap - get out of auto. If you select aperture, the camera will set the speed for you anyway. Its a good place to start taking control. Pick something like a flower in your yard.
Shoot it at every aperature setting you have, without changing your physical position. Look at each shot so you can see the difference in background results. A small number (f6.0 zinnia) will give you a small amount of focus - say, just the flower. A bigger number (f11 daisies) will give you more focus, including the flower and every other leaf, fence, etc. behind the flower.
I used f22 to get the most depth of field on the lupine hill. I focused on the photographer in the "middle" plane of the image.
Play with each feature of your camera, one at a time. Of course, switch to auto if see a "once in a lifetime" shot coming your way and you dont want to take a chance fiddling with settings :-)

When you have things on different planes, the easiest thing to do is focus on the row in the middle. That's where the eye goes naturally and softer images in the rear or front aren't as noticable.
Use a smaller aperture (try 11, or 16 if its really sunny) and you will get more depth of field.
An aperture of 5 is good for shooting a flower when you want the background to be softer and the flower more in focus. If you set the aperture to 22 you'll get good results as long as there is enough light on the subject(s). That's what I use for most landscapes.