[F8] XML gallery with different widths

Hi Guys, this has been stumping me for a while. I'm not exactly a beginner in flash but loading things externally has always been a right pain for me

I'm trying to make a scrolling horizontal gallery with large panaormic pictures. The image's height will be all the same but I need different widths, so Im trying to define each image's width in the XML data.

Here's my code, I've tried to highlight the part I think I'm having issues with ******

Actionscript Code:

stop();

startDrag("newCursor", true);

//////Create instance
var myGalleryXML = new XML();
myGalleryXML.ignoreWhite = true;
myGalleryXML.load("projects.xml");

//////defines sizes/quantity from the xml file and calls functions
myGalleryXML.onLoad = function() {

_root.gallery_x = 55
_root.gallery_y = 30
_root.gallery_width = 890
_root.gallery_height = 410

_root.myImages = myGalleryXML.firstChild.childNodes;
_root.myImagesTotal = myImages.length;

var padding:Number = 20;

callThumbs();
createMask();
scrolling();
};

///////creates images function
function callThumbs() {

_root.createEmptyMovieClip("container_mc",10);
container_mc._x = _root.gallery_x;
container_mc._y = _root.gallery_y;

var clipLoader = new MovieClipLoader();
var preloader = new Object();
clipLoader.addListener(preloader);

for (i=0; i<_root.myImagesTotal; i++) {

***********************
thumbURL = myImages[i].attributes.thumb_url;
imageWidth = myImages[i].attributes.image_width;
myThumb_mc = container_mc.createEmptyMovieClip(i, container_mc.getNextHighestDepth() );
myThumb_mc._x = imageWidth + padding;
clipLoader.loadClip("images/"+thumbURL,myThumb_mc);
***********************

preloader.onLoadStart = function(target) {
target.createTextField("my_txt",target.getNextHighestDepth(),0,0,100,20);
target.my_txt.textColor = 0xDBDBDB;
target.my_txt.selectable = false;
target.my_txt.textFont = "arial"; 
};

preloader.onLoadProgress = function(target, loadedBytes, totalBytes) {
target.my_txt.text = Math.floor((loadedBytes/totalBytes)*100)+"%";
};

preloader.onLoadComplete=function(target){
target.my_txt.removeTextField();
}

}
}

/////masking edge of the gallery
function createMask() {

_root.createEmptyMovieClip("mask_mc",_root.getNextHighestDepth());

mask_mc._x = _root.gallery_x;
mask_mc._y = _root.gallery_y;

mask_mc.beginFill(0x000000,100);
mask_mc.lineTo(_root.gallery_width,0);
mask_mc.lineTo(_root.gallery_width,_root.gallery_height);
mask_mc.lineTo(0,_root.gallery_height);
mask_mc.lineTo(0,0);

container_mc.setMask(mask_mc);

}


/////scrolling function
function scrolling() {
_root.onEnterFrame = function() {
    
    
////try changing all y's to x's and hight to width
    if (mask_mc._xmouse<(mask_mc._width*(1/3)) || mask_mc._xmouse>(mask_mc._width*(2/3))) {
container_mc._x += Math.cos(((mask_mc._xmouse)/mask_mc._width)*Math.PI)*15;

if (container_mc._x>mask_mc._x) {
container_mc._x = mask_mc._x;
}

if (container_mc._x<(mask_mc._x-(container_mc._width-mask_mc._width))) {
container_mc._x = mask_mc._x-(container_mc._width-mask_mc._width);
}
    }
};
}

Am I completely barking up the wrong tree here?

Thanks in advance!