Hi, new user to this site, my problem is my mouse likes to go into outer space and sometimes it just momentairly freezes up. I have an IBM corded optical mouse and working with windows ME. Help

What do you mean go into outer space? What are you doing when it freezes?
I also have a corded optical mouse and the one thing I didnt do was load the driver for it. The driver can cause problems so if it will run fine without it, dont use the driver.

I may only be reading the mail, or playing a game when I go to move the cursor, it may be off to the side of the screen or off the bottom of the screen, or it may just sit there and not move for a couple seconds like the machine was rebooting or something

You might like to download Hijack this from my signature, follow the instructions, run it and post a log just to rule out any problems there.
You may like to adjust the speed of the mouse in control panel/mouse and see if that helps.