Not sure why this was this way but it worked so its fixed 🙂 wooo hooooo

use [database name]

sp_droppublication @publication='publication_name', @ignore_distributor = 1

then restarted the services..and the publication was still there then I tried the following code

USE master

EXEC sp_removedbreplication @dbname='DB_NAME'

GO

exec sp_dropsubscription @subscriber='subscription_name'-- If you find anything under +

exec sp_droppublication 'publication name'

And this above worked and got rid of the orphaned subscriptions and all..wooo hoooo again

I then followed up with dropping the distribution db so that I can start all over from scratch. Which will be perfect and I don't have to do a re-install

--dropping distribution db

use master

go

alter database distribution set offline;

drop database distribution;

Thanks for everyone' s assistance...greatly appreciated.