Jisho.org Forum

Those are a lot of questions---I'll try and briefly field the first one or three. I don't actually understand your first sentence, so I'll just guess. There are many uses of と, but simplest is that you can use it for "and" when connecting nouns, but not sentences. See

http://forum.jisho.org/discussion/82/volitional-/#Item_0

If you want to do the same thing for connecting sentences, you should　use the て-form of a verb: e.g.,
がっこう　に　いって、いえ　に　かえった。(i) went to school and then came home
school to go/went, home to returned

Here に is translated as "to." See

http://forum.jisho.org/discussion/153/difference-between-nihe-and-de-particle/#Item_0

for some on に and で (and へ)

You can use と to connect phrases but it has more of a meaning of "if" or "when":

こちら　に　くる　と、　うれしい If (you) do come here, (I'll) be happy
here to come if, happy

There are several other uses of と, like after a quotation:

どこ　ですか　と　ききました　　(i) asked "where (is it)?"
where is quote asked

These are the most common uses of と.

edit: i can't seem to get the spacing for the english underneath the japanese to line up--any suggestions?

You don't need to translate words, I understand them. My vocabulary is quite wide, but I don't get few things in spoken japanese.

Thanks, anyway.

了解。