Thank you both for your kind words. Unfortunately this background issue only occurs in older versions of IE as I have mentioned. I did it this way adding the image as the background instead of directly into the site because IE has a terrible time with padding issues and I simply don't trust IE. Well now IE is giving me this problem with just SHOWING the background image!
The current CSS utilizes top positioning but I dont believe this is that issue. I highly suspect that this is because IE does not recognize the background image period but I am not sure of this. I am still in need of help here.
mcorton I am only having issues in IE, this is isolated to IE 7 and below only. Everything is great in Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari... everything.. IE and IE ONLY is giving me a hassle.