I finally got my action bar item to work, but only on an activity that isn't my main activity. Also, the icon is wrong since I don't have an activity to do it yet (search). But it works! All I did was follow what is in the Android tutorial. One thing I made sure was (since this action bar has an up/home function) to add the new action bar items before the home item. That might not be the fix but it worked this time so I will assume it was the fix until proven otherwise.
Also, i need to remember these things about git:
cd to the correct folder
git status
git commit -a
git push
my git password
Yay! Now to work on adding a database to my app. This is all so exciting! I am so glad to be making progress.