We're home!

We're home and what an exciting trip it was!! ;)

Here we are just before leaving home on Tuesday.

I have much to tell and much to show you so lets just jump into it while it's still fresh and new in my mind! (haha-Like I'm likely to forget anytime soon!!)

I have to say Alli had the time of her life and Tina and I were just as thrilled, if not more so, in watching our extraordinary girl!

First off... when we got underway for the drive to Orlando to catch the flight to Dallas -but before we had even gotten out of Ocala- Alli got a phone call from a local writer for the Ocala Banner. He said he was aware that she had won this contest and trip and that he would like to do an interview. He talked with her on the phone for for several minutes, asking her all kinds of questions about the video she had made that won the contest. (Milk Rocks.com) This reporter told Alli he had seen the other videos that were entered also and he was very impressed with Alli's winning vid. He praised it highly and asked her all about how she did the editing, who did the filming, etc. He also said he had talked to the video production teacher at her school, wanting to know if any help had come from the class in making/editing the video. Of course that teacher had to say 'No,' because Alli is not a student in his class! :) Alli did this with no help or advice from any professional person.

We supposed the website that sponsored the contest had notified the paper here.

We figured Alli would be contacted again for a face to face interview but we were wrong! :) Early the next day after our arrival at the motel, Alli had a text message from a friend that this story was in Wednesday's paper. We were able to get online at the motel and read this story for ourselves!

~~~~~

Vanguard senior will take stage with band

By Joe VanHoose

Staff writer

Published: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 6:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 5:54 a.m.

OCALA - Allison Fahey has a pop band she idolizes, just like every 17-year-old. She knows every word of every song by heart and even tries to harmonize with her favorite group as if she were on stage with them.

But tonight in Texas, Alli will get a chance most 17-year-olds never get. She will actually take to the stage with her favorite band, the Plain White T's and sing one of their hit songs.

The Vanguard High School senior won a contest hosted by Milk Rocks, an anti-obesity milk-drinking incentive, after she created a music video of her singing the Plain White T's new song, "1, 2, 3, 4." Now she will sing the song with the band at a concert in Grand Prairie.

Alli said she's seen several Plain White T's shows, but this experience will be like no other.

"I have met them in the past, so this will be like a reunion," Alli said while she waited Tuesday afternoon to board a plane to Texas. "But I really want to sing with them."

The contest was promoted on more than 50 million milk cartons in 25,000 school cafeterias across the country, but Alli said she found out about the promotion on the band's MySpace site.

"I saw the ad and knew I had to do that," she said. "They're my all-time favorite band."

With her mother, Tina Fahey, holding the camera, Alli arranged her video around her grandmother's yard. She sits on her old treehouse, leans up against a 1940s Chevrolet in a garage and pokes her head through a wagon wheel, all while black and white accents turn to color.

EXCERPT_

Read the rest of the story here!

I was so very impressed with how Alli handled that unexpected interview.

She certainly is a young lady who has it all together and with an overabundance of self confidence. Nothing fazes her and I was going to see a lot more evidence of that the next day... :)

~~~

We have lots of pictures... and I usually like to tell my stories in the correct sequence as it happens...

but I can't wait to share this video with you all of Alli singing with the band (Plain White T's) last night!! :) Someone already put this performance on Youtube! We were delighted to find this so soon!

(Thanks to Youtube~gpater2)

:)

I will backtrack on our experience tomorrow-with lots of pictures!

OH!

And of course 'I' got to meet the band too, (with hugs,even!!) and pictures to prove it! ;)

...to be continued...

Junie