Can you beleive it will have been 10 years since this picture??? We need to get together to up date this!!! 

Here's a trip down memory lane!!! 

Here is Spencer sporting his new tile vacuum! He was so excited to get it!!! 

Here is Suzanne demonstrating the proper carpet vacuuming technique 

Here's Julie demonstrating the 8 pound Oreck 

Here are all the kids in front of the Christmas tree, Christmas Eve 2004, sporting their new Christmas socks! 

Here are the Christmas cinnamon rolls! 

Here is an Apple pie to "round" out the pie menu... and us! 

Here are the missionaries in front of our Christmas tree. 

...and the dinner rolls! 

This dough went into the cinnamon rolls and the dinner rolls. They were all so good!

Here is a real Texas treat, pecan pie! Debby made this for Christmas dinner with pecans grown about a half mile from the church 

I made this loaf of cinimon bread this morning. If you don't have a bread maker yet, my advice is, get one. We paid $59 for ours and love it! 

"Do-it Yourself'er" Explanatory Notes

Okay, have you ever had one of those weeks... The dishwasher crumped... again. The car quit in a corn field in the middle of nowhere beyond the distance the insurance company says they will tow. The vacuum cleaner explodes!, etc., etc. So, I've knocked off the first two. Here are some interesting notes:

1. The picture of the key shows the anti-theft "chip", which turns out to be a 680 ohm resister that you can buy at Radio Shack for 5 cents. The problem was that the car, without warning, simply wouldn't start! It wouldn't turn over, nothing! It was a mystery, or should I say, it was misery! Anyhow, there are only a few mentions anywhere of the anti-theft module and none of the local second source parts places (autozone, etc.) had any diagrams or information. I did, however, get some clues from the web. Long story short, I finally isolated the wire from the anti-theft module to the ignition key, cut it and spliced in a 680 ohm resister I had in my stash in the garage. The only people who would work on a car with an anti-theft system problem were the delerships and the average quote for the repair was $1000.
2. The picture of the dishwasher shows the parts I replaced to get it going again. The interesting thing to note here is the following. Orriginally, the machine went down when a trace burned right off the back of the computer circuit board. The best price I could get on a replacement was $90 if I install it. So, I did what any "do-it yourself'er" would do, I fashioned new trace out of wire and soldered it in place of the burned trace. That worked for a while. Then the main fuse (thermal cut-off type) blew. I replaced it a couple of times, trying to catch the exact time in the wash cycle it would blow. However, each fuse would last anywhere from several days to several weeks. I did finally isolate the problem to the heating element. I bought a new one for $59 (a lot of $$ for a ring of iron...), but as it turns out there was more. Apparently, they had upgraded (fixed is probably a more accurate term) the heating system so that along with the element came a new computer! So, for $59, I was okay with that. While I was in there, I also replaced the soap dispenser, which had a broken latch. All of my kids are happy that the dishwasher is fixed!!!

I think I have now figured out the problem... You have to make comments on each pic if uploading more than one at a time. 

Second try at posting this pic. See notes below. 

For the "Do-it Yourself'er" here are some pic's from a couple of recent repairs. See details in explanatory note. 

Here are some images created with an imaging system based on a new chip we make here at Cypress, Texas 

New Cypress Chips

Here are some pic's and reviews of one of the new products we are making here at Cypress, Texas:


NY Times Article - November 17, 2004 By GINA KOLATA

• The scans "will completely revolutionize medicine," said Dr. Mario J. Garcia, director of the echocardiography lab at the Cleveland Clinic. Diagnosis of heart disease, he argued, will be transformed, and lives saved.
• Dr. Garcia said, "this CT machine in an emergency room could take a picture and very quickly tell" whether the pain is from a blocked artery, or not. He added: "That's a phenomenal potential. I am convinced it will change the practice of medicine.''
• What if doctors had a new way to diagnose heart disease that took only seconds and provided pictures so clear it showed every clogged artery, so detailed that it was like holding a living heart in your hand?
• In fact, that new way exists and is coming into use in scattered areas of the country, and there is wide agreement that it will revolutionize cardiology.
• The scans can largely replace diagnostic angiograms, the expensive, onerous way of looking for blockages in arteries, and can make diagnosis so easy that doctors would not hesitate to use them. They are expected to cost about $700, compared with about $4,000 for an angiogram.
• Moreover, the scans take seconds to conduct and require no recuperation time; angiograms take nearly an hour and patients must stay in the hospital for a day. The new scans can see not just the outline of blood vessels but every detail inside and out.

Quotable Quotes from the Mitchells

Here are a couple of recent quotes from the dinner table at the Mitchells:

• "I know everything..., just ask me." (Julie, age 5)

• "I have a large vocabulary, I just don't know what it all means." (One of our kids who has requested anonymity (whatever that means...))

More later.

First Entry

Hey Ya'll, Just want to thank Matt for setting up this blog for us. If you haven't set yours up yet, I encourage you to do it. It is really as easy as Matt says....

We had a great Christmas with Brian and Melanie home from BYU. We mostly did things around the house. Melanie spent a couple days in San Antonio with her friend Carly. Brian spent a couple days in the unincorporated area of south east "no-where" first helping a family move then helping me work on the Buick, which broke down in the middle of an old corn field! At least the weather was pleasant! More later

Hey Matt, here is one of my favorite pic's of a couple of my favorite people, doing one of my favorite things! 

Here is a "pencil sketch" of the girls all in a tree flanked by Brian on the left and Spencer on the right. 12/21/04. Picture taken on Debby's birthday. 

Here are the kids 12/26/04 

We took advantage of having Brian and Melanie home to get a family picture.