I have a rebel XT
Very nice! takes some wonderful pictures..and they're HUGE..so if you're going for those nice close up detailed pics, then you've chosen one of the best.
You don't really need a whole lot of experience with this camera. it should come with an instruction manual. There's usually an "automatic" setting that you can just set, point, and click.
I suggest you get a a good 2gb card. I can take over 500 large pictures on a single card...each picture is over 2.5 megs, or you can take literally thousands of pictures on the small picture settings.
You'll also need to know how to resize, because these pictures are huge, large pics are 3456 x 2304 pixels
Photoshop is your friend
Good luck on your purchase!!