Windows Movie Maker Won't Publish Movie

Hi,

I've spent hours creating a first year video in Windows Movie Maker for my son's birthday tomorrow. I can't publish it to the computer or to a DVD. I'm on a 32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 system. I've imported AVI and MPG video from a FLIP camera and a Sony Digital Video camera. I've also incorporated JPG photos and audio (from iTunes and Amazon MP3). The total play time (in storyboard) is just over 15 minutes. I am using transitions. I have plenty of hard drive space, almost 30GB free. I have successfully used my DVD burner in the past...and have even successfully created a Windows Movie Maker Movie and burned it to a DVD in the past...but that "movie" contained only one video and then just a bunch of pictures.

First I tried publishing my new project to the computer but it never finished. I left it over night and it was still stuck at 20% (or so) in the morning. Next I tried publishing to DVD which opens Windows DVD maker. Again it never finishes...it gets stuck anywhere from 1.2% to 68.4% with each try...though it has slowly increased in percentage with each try. 

I tried unchecking all of the filters under Tools->Options and actually got a DVD to burn but all of the .AVI videos were black. Which filters do I need to leave on for .AVI files to continue to work? I also replaced all music files from iTunes with WMA format music and am trying another burn. Now it's stuck again at 67.5% and I'm guessing it won't ever finish.

What do I do to get this thing published? I'm so bummed and frustrated...I have hours invested in this thing.

Thanks,
Evan's Mom