It was a tranquil day, set on the background of a Midwestern family with Timothy Morris of Bloomington reading the newspaper at home with his wife for over 21 years, Arlene. Just another peaceful and ordinary day, that is until Mr. Morris peruses over the results of the Illinois Lotto game and there printed on the page of his favorite morning read, the Bloomington Pantagraph was his preferred combination of lottery numbers. Mega lottery

Timothy, a man with dedication and perseverance gives credits to his parents for having shaped the foundations of his personality and work ethics but also his winning Lotto combination. Morris has actually been playing for over 25 years the same combination of numbers; this combination is derived from his parents’ respective birthdays. Through the years he has accumulated quite a number of small wins. But this time the prize was far from being small. On Wednesday September 21st he played his same set of numbers and hit $3.25 million for matching all six numbers.

“I was pretty skeptical at first; in fact I was convinced it couldn’t be true,” said Arlene, when her husband, still with the newspaper at hand and confirming over and over again to make sure he was right. To make sure, they went online and confirmed the win on the Lottery’s website, then went to their respective jobs like any other day.

However it was a tough day to concentrate at work, Timothy, who works as the IT manager at the Bloomington Pantagraph, and Arlene, 46, who works at State Farm Insurance designing and updating many of the company’s 18,000 forms. Their minds were busy thinking about the best ways to use this windfall. They both thought that family was a priority since they have four children three of them going to college and one 16 year old. Powerball lottery

After much thought, Timothy and Arlene made the following decisions: pay off their home, pay off outstanding college loans, give something to their parents, and save for the future. They are considering buying a late-model-year minivan and if they do, they might consider a new paint job and rims for the 2006 Chevy Impala that most likely will be handed to him.

Timothy says that he still has another card under the sleeve ant that is the combination of numbers composed of his four children’s birthday numbers and that he plans to keep on playing.

This is the story a hard working, middle-class family whose win will allow them to pay off all their debts, have their children’s education secured and save for the future. And who knows they might even splurge on a whim from time to time, after all they took home a total payment of $2,375,730.50 after taxes and choosing the one-time lump-sum modality.