Can't Load a New Avatar

I can't get an avatar to load.  I tried a couple weeks ago to load a pet picture, then tonight I tried to change the old one.  Last time I just tried to load a new one without removing the old one and it didn't work, so this time, I took the old one out first, which worked just fine, but now it won't accept a new one.  I tried resizing it and also tried in both browsers, Firefox and IE, but nothing. 

I don't mean to be a chess piece, so hopefully if we can get it sorted, I'll be a Christmas angel .

Thanks, Chris and Sarah.

hi phil  try this.

click on--my account--upload avatar--browse--my pics--open--save changes have patience then avatar should appear.   cheers

Your present avatar makes me smile every time I look at it James. LOL

Incidentally I still can't get the smiley faces to work.

YAY!  My avatar problem seems to be fixed!  Don't know what the problem was.  Maybe the site only accepts truthful pictures and I tried to upload an angel picture (for Christmas ).