Actually, as simple as that sounds I had not thought of doing that.  I've
gone through a number of other options, but that one did not make the
list. I will try that tonight and hopefully get an answer back from one of
the receipents tomorrow sometime early.
Here is the main section of the code where I actually make use of the
classes. Who knows maybe I am overlooking something rediculously easy.

// create a mime_mail instance
$userMail = new mime_mail;

// add required fields
$userMail->from    = $from;
$userMail->to      = $to;
$userMail->subject = $subject;
$userMail->body    = $body;
$userMail->add_attachment($file_contents, $xls_filename, $content_type);

// get the constructed email data
$data = $userMail->get_mail();

// create  a smtp_mail instance
$smtp = new smtp_mail;

// send the email
$smtp->send_email($smtp_server, $from, $to, $data, $crlfEncode);

Thanks for the response this one is getting the best of me.

-Glenn