dm, try adding 'class="bginput"' to the INPUT tag in your 'search_the_internet' template.
Go into that template, and change this :
Code:
<input type="text" name="searchString" size="25" maxlength="255" value="">
... to this :
Code:
<input type="text" class="bginput" name="searchString" size="25" maxlength="255" value="">
... that should keep the colours consistent.
Dark Shogun, I think a few here have done what you are asking - I feel really really bad about not sticking around right now to expalain, but i'm way behind on a site upgrade. Have a look around this support thread, and see if somone has explained it.