@ard_nubie
I've already read that page you linked, however, I'll re-read it since you've found it useful and hopefully pick up a few more concepts that I may have missed. Thank you.
@UKHeliBob
Thank you very much for the leads and samples. I'm looking into how to use classes, instances, and #include now! 
@sterretje
Thank you for the response. I understand what you're saying about the Serial.read() and Serial.write(). Makes sense.
Follow-up question; if I unplug my Arduino from my IDE and run off a battery, will I still be able to pass my functions data via the Serial commands?
@Robin2
Oh... I had no idea that what you had suggested was actually possible. Doing it your way might change everything seeing as the code was made just for my project. I'll look into that now