What's the best way of working with images in a Drupal blog?

Hello, currently working with 6.8, Acquia theme, and quite a few modules.
I want to be able to have images in a blog post like this: http://www.topnotchthemes.com/blog/090112/checking-world-ubercart

I want to be able to easily add content to my page and in the process I'd like to be able to Upload images from my computer, or from the internet, into a node. Basically here's my trials and erros:

Using FCKEditor, I've used the typical "Insert Image" but, this only gives you the option of adding something from a URL or something that is already on the server using the file browser. I would still have to manually upload images to the server via FTP.

Then I found out about the Image module. Image module allows me to now add images to the page as a content type, which is cool, but what good is adding an "image" node, which is a completely different content type. I'm working with blog/pages mostly. Is there any reason you would want to add more nodes to the system??

Then I found that Image module includes the Image Attach module, which basically adds a new field to the node post form, which allows you to attach ONE image, either via Uploading, or by selecting a currently added Image node that's in the system... This of course doesn't work too good because for 1.) you can only select one image (and it displays it in the node, without allowing you to put it where you want it). And 2.) if you use select a currently available image in the system, that means you would of already had to add to database, and how would that work if I had 1500 images on the server? This is an extreme productivity killer...

Then I found a cool little module called IMCE which works flawlessly with FCKEditor allowing me to select images from the file server from different locations, and allowing me to add them right into the system from IMCE. This works GREAT and has been working good for me. The problem with this is one that after I create my node (blog post), I'm unable to click on the picture in my post and make it bigger, unless of course I turn that into a clickable link that takes you to the Image's location...but then the user has to leave the page. And again, this slows down my blog writing time.... when I have to do that for 5 or 6 images per post...

Then I found this little thing called Lightbox2, which would easily allow users to click on a picture and explode the image up right on the same page, without navigating away from the posting. Lightbox2 is awesome, but here's the problem with that, I was unable to figure out how to get it to work with images that were adding using IMCE/FCKEditor. Since adding pictures via IMCE/FCKEditor uses the Image's Source location... Lightbox2 is unable to work with this (as far as I know) because my IMCE images ARE NOT image nodes....

Well then I found img_assist! Image assist works pretty good, and even integrates into FCK, so I'm able to now add image nodes on the fly. But now the problem is, I still can't get Lightbox2 to work with this either. I changed the automatic Lightbox settings for "Image assist" to "Enabled" but still doesn't work... This is so frustrating.

I just want to be able to add pictures to my page easily when I create blog posts, and then be able to have visitors click on the image an make it bigger via lightbox....

What is this site doing: http://www.topnotchthemes.com/blog/090112/checking-world-ubercart
I want to be able to do that easily...

Can anyone help me??