Yesterday was the day that Grace started her first phase of braces. Because of her very narrow, high palate and severe crowding, she will have a different experience than Megan did.
Waiting patiently in the chair to get her expander and braces glued on.
She has an expander that is glued to her back teeth and forms a bridge across the roof of her mouth. We do a quarter of a turn every night. The expander will be opening up her palate over the next three weeks. At that point, it will be determined whether we need to continue with turns (to continue opening), or to sit and wait for the palate to close back up. The braces on the front six teeth of her upper jaw are also making space for her teeth to come in properly.
In addition to expanding her palate with the expander, she will be wearing this mask only at night. It is attached to the front of her face by rubber bands that are connected to her expander. Its purpose is to drag the upper jaw forward, which will correct the bite. 
Receiving instructions on brushing with braces on.
She is "blessed" with more hardware in her mouth and is learning to talk, chew, and swallow with all that in. It makes me realize how much we take for granted. She has been a trooper and has only used wintergreen oil on her gums for the soreness.~Wee
~Wee
At the end of the tour, we were able to freely roam their showroom, which "shows" all that this company makes. It was fun to open and close the cupboards and doors, enjoying some very unique designs, and to dream a little :) Isn't this kitchen beautiful?!
From the cabinet company, we went to a sawmill operated by the Amish.
When all the bark is removed, the log rolls down the ramp and is later run through the sawmill.
Inside the sawmill, the machines were running. On this machine, the logs went round and round as they were split into strips (you can see a strip shooting off the cutter onto a flat belt). 
Back outside, we watched this big crane at work. First, it picks up a tree trunk,
positions it in the saw
and cuts it, 
then moves the cut pieces over to a different pile.
Any unusable pieces of wood (from pallets, trees, etc.,) runs through a chopper and shoots into this barn. The sawdust is later used for mulch.
From the sawmill, just a few of us families went down the road to a place that makes pallets (also run by Amish). This part of the trip was so neat, and I'm glad we took the time to see it. This machine is nailing the pallets together just after, and I mean "just after," the worker finished placing the boards on it correctly. There were a few times when the worker barely got out of the way of the machine before it moved back to nail on the boards. After the pallets are nailed together and before they are stacked like you see in the picture, each one is stamped with the company's name. All these pallets are going to a dairy farm.
After the tour, I found out that the Amish man was a first cousin to one of my former massage clients from Topeka. It was fun to make that connection! It's such a small world.
Once again, I truly delight in watching the girls play! It is so neat to see their improvement and development in skill and coordination from year to year. She handled the ball well and had several nice drives in the lane. She even made a basket in the 4th quarter! At the dinner table tonight, Megan was telling us how when she was dribbling the ball and all the players moved out of the lane with their opponents, "it was like I was wide open." I think she was even amazed at the level of play these girls have learned and are now performing! 
We've been in the house for five years now, and this is the first project we've done on the upper level. It's exciting for me to finally be "doing something" as far as decorating up there! I've waited a long time for this! 
