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 Lisa and John Robinson of Munford, Tennessee, appeared at a press
conference at the Tennessee Lottery's offices with their adult
daughter Tiffany and black and white dog Abby and said they would
take their $528.8 million share in an immediate cash payment instead
of annual payments over 29 years.
"We're going to take the lump sum because we're not guaranteed
tomorrow," John Robinson said.
They will pay off their two children's student loans as well as
their own mortgage and, after investing the rest of their new-found
fortune, keep living in the same home, with the same jobs, in the
Memphis suburb of Munford.
"Big fancy houses, elaborate houses, they're nice. But you have to
clean them," John Robinson said.
 Next week, he will return to his job at a distribution center and
Lisa to her position at a dermatologist's office, they said.
"That's what we've done all our life. Work. You can't just sit down
and do nothing," he said.
Robinson recalled buying the lucky ticket on Wednesday just hours
before the Powerball drawing. His wife asked him to buy tickets on
his way home from work, so, even though he didn't feel well, he
bought them at Naifeh's Food Mart in Munford.
At home, he laid out the four tickets, one representing each family
member, and took a nap. His wife kept an eye on the televised
drawing and leapt up when she realized one of the tickets matched.
"I was running down the hallway screaming and crying," Lisa Robinson
recalled. "I said, 'You have to check these numbers!' He was asleep
and was like, 'Whaaa?'"
Once he had a good look at the ticket, he wanted to surprise
Tiffany, who lives nearby. He tried to lure her over with a request
that she bring him some headache medicine.
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"She got someone else to bring it," he sighed. His plan foiled,
Robinson spilled the good news to her over the phone.
"I said 'Tiffany, we got the winning numbers!' She said, 'No.' I
said, 'Yup'," Robinson recalled.
He then consulted his brother, who works in finance and referred
them to a financial advisor, who recommended a lawyer.
The couple, on their lawyer's advice, agreed to travel to New York
on Thursday night to appear on NBC's Today show early on Friday.
Saying they had slept only one hour in the last 48, they excused
themselves from the press conference to get rest.
Holders of the two other winning tickets, which were sold in
California and Florida, have yet to come forward.
Under lottery rules, a winner has up to a year to present a ticket.
All three states with winners have laws requiring their names be
released publicly, according to the Powerball website.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg, Susan Heavey and Colleen Jenkins;
Editing by Bill Trott and James Dalgleish)
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