i have been sitting here for hours troubleshooting. i had just copied my Skyrim folder and was getting ready to re-download vanilla and start troubleshooting 1 mod at a time. i decided to check this forum one final time (haven't received an email notification about your post yet)... i uninstalled the XPMS Maximum Skeleton mod and it fixed everything!!! you just saved me a couple days of re-downloading, installing, and troubleshooting... THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!