I had previously tried removing them from the whole document using the paragraph format, but to no avail... I tried paragraph above and below, 2paras above and below, and it just kept moving up. but what I just tried was just 1 chapter... they finally disappeared..!!!!!!!

I saw what you mean about the left page vertical line and that I just need to turn off track changes to make it go away.... so thank you so much for your help!