OK - I got most of this sorted out with regards to the order in which emails (primarily my Pending Membership email) come out.
The problem now is this. My moderator received the "Owner message" response to the "Pending Membership" email, but I never did. Our subscriptions are setup identically. Does the system send one email and call it good, failing to look for others that should receive it?? Any other ideas of why I didn't receive the "owner message" (I am, after all, the owner!) but the moderator did?