make index.php be a "page" and blog postings go to different php page

Hello

I would like for the index page on my site to have a "page" format, without the footer. I would like to set a link in the menu to the blog page to a page within the site, eg "blog.php, which I could probably do by renaming a copy of index.php. However, I would like blog postings to go to this page, as opposed to the index.php page. And I want to set the menu so that on all new pages the link to the blog page would be to "blog.php."

I know I could modify the footer in a. options.footer, but that would defeat my purpose.

Is any of this making sense? I know someone has done this, and the answer is probably very simple, but I am stumped!

Thanks for a beautiful theme.

Jack