Well after a period of time, the range of values read onto the Serial.print were getting becoming less and less (0 to 1023 down to 15 and 900 along those lines). I rewired everything and 2nd time it the values didn't change and left the microcontroller running the whole day. I'll have to test it again a third time because I'll have to rewire again once I start hooking up all four motors and the joystick controller.
Since I'm not at home right now I'll try to explain how it's wired up. I soldered 5 breakaway header pins to the breakout board of the joystick controller below it (See image below) I soldered the top of the header pins below the breakout board because I am using a solderless breadboard and the bottom of the headers are too short to go through the joystick breakout board and connect to the board. I am using a solderless breadboard so I can have clean components for other future projects (I don't have the budget to be constantly buying new things). I have 5v hooked to 5v on arduino but through the red channel of my breadboard, ground is grounded on both. Vertical and Horizontal potentiometer is hooked up to analog pins 0 and 1. I'll eventually hook up the pushbutton too to an analog pin (with a resistor) since all my digital pins will be utilized for my project. No resistors are used in any of my circuitry yet.
Again, I'll try to take pictures when I'm home. There was a slight amount of something burnt and black on the breakoutboard while I soldered the joystick and headers to the breakout board. I don't think any of the solder is touching more than one connection as close as I could check with a magnifying glass.
Source: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/116