Help! Pictures have me puzzled

I need help! I have tried what I can think of, googled and read the instruction book for my phone and can’t get the answers I want. So rather than admit defeat, I decided to bring my issue here. Here we go….

I have a pretty basic Samsung phone, with sliding keyboard from T-Mobile. It’s 3G and about a year old. I take pictures on it when I don’t have a camera on me. I send pictures via text to friends and family. Here is my problem: I want to get the pictures off my phone.

Here is what I have tried and/or know:
· I used the cable to connect my phone to my pc. When I did this, I got two options. One was PC and one was USB Mass Storage. I choose PC but was unable to get my pc to recognize it and my phone didn’t really do anything other than charge. It also had a lovely picture of a computer above near the date - other than that, not sure what it was doing! Then I choose Mass Storage and that was clearly not the right choice. It was allowing me to download from my pc but not vice versa.
· My camera (on the phone) has the capability of having a memory card in it for pictures when you take off the back cover. This card didn’t automatically come with my phone and I would rather not buy one specifically for it. My camera card does not fit in it.
· I have data connections available but would prefer not to use it. I know I have the option to drop them in Snapfish, Flickr, Facebook, etc.

So that’s my dilemma…I feel like I am missing something with the cable connection probably from the phone side, but I don’t know what. I feel like the answer is here in the connection piece though because it’s essentially the same way I would transfer pictures from my camera to my pc. Does anyone else do this without a droid or iphone? Helped a patron who has? I would love to hear from you.