Finally got the problems figured out. I had the flash in wrong path and once i put it directly in public_html/images the header loads correctly.

As for the little xml document, I tried using Text pad and then loading that to server but only succeeded when I saved the xml doc in notepad and then put it on server.

All kinds of little technical things to make up a site, eh??

Thanks for all your suggestions and help!
Danielle Parsons