Judy I'm glad you got your camera. I know how excited you were about it. I would reccomend using your flash until you are more familiar with the cameras functions.
Just remember smaller aperture will give you more detailed shots and the higher shutter speed will help with blurring though you will have to sacrifice one somewhat to gain the other. I would recomend trying to mess around with it on manual settings so you can get a better feel for it.
Did you figure out how to use the auto focus points yet? If not look that up in your manual this will help you out on those shots where the body is in focus but not the head.