Hello Jim! Jim here as well, lets try not to get too confused!
You're on the right track. But, the numbers referred by "menu-order" are applied by you in the WP Dashboard:
click on "Pages" on the lefthand vertical menu...then, when you see the full listing of all your pages, run your cursor over a page name in the list and you'll see a few choices appear, click on either "edit" or "quick edit."
You now see, way on the right a form box captioned "Order".
THAT is where you put the "page numbers" you want to create a desired ordering of your pages in the menu bar.
The best approach is to initially use big numbers so you'll have plenty of room later to insert new pages. Eg. if you have six pages, number them 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600. Then, later when come up with a new page that must be between the last two you can number it 550.
Note: any "sub" pages will automatically be positioned immediately following their parent page, even if you leave their "order" numbers set to "0". You'll only need to assign them order nos if you want to change their order UNDER their parent.
I hope I haven't confused you even more! TTFN Shepherd Jim