Julie Nolan urges on the 1993 Chevrolet Cavalier toward her Kellogg, Minn., home, the speedometer needle struggling to hit 60 miles per hour. The aging car's odometer registers another mile with a click n 220,646 and counting n as she heads home from a shift at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

She bought the car with only seven miles on it. The vehicle still has a certain sentimental value, even though rust has eaten through sections of the passenger side floorboard.

"Besides, if somebody hits me, I can just leave it by the side of the road," she said, with a laugh.

Friends and family told her for years to replace the Chevy. But they became more insistent in January 2008 when Nolan won a $1 milllion prize from the Minnesota State Lottery.

Most people assume that such a prize would dramatically alter a person's life — visions of a new car, new job, new lifestyle. State lottery systems are predicated on these very hopes. But one year after collecting her big check, Nolan said her life hasn't changed too much. Many things in her life are just like her car, and why trade in something that still runs well?

Disbelief. It's the best word to describe Julie's reaction last year when she realized the numbers on her lottery ticket matched the winning digits. She discovered her good fortune on a Wednesday, but she could not get the ticket validated at the state lottery office until Friday. The time in between became a nerve-racking whirlwind as she scrambled to get time off from work while not letting on that she had likely snagged the $1 million prize.

Life seemed even more hectic right after it was confirmed. Nolan met with the media, grinning and posing for pictures while holding a giant check with her name on it. She called her bank, on the advice of lottery officials, to notify the staff that a large addition would soon join the $32 in her checking account. Shortly thereafter, the lottery wired $677,500 into the account, Nolan's take-home total after taxes immediately sliced 32.25 percent of her $1 million.

The pace slowed in the coming weeks, and she did something with her money that many people might think strange — not a whole lot.

Sure, she bought plenty of presents for her two kids, 7-year-old Nolan and 4-year-old Kendall. "I think they're spoiled a little bit," she joked.

She poured money into the house she bought at a foreclosure sale in November 2006, buying new siding, upgrading the landscaping and turning her "10-year project" into a few-month overhaul.

And she treated her family to a memorable vacation. Nolan, her children, her mom, her sister and two nieces spent a week in May at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

But many other aspects of her life didn't change at all.

She still drives the beat-up Cavalier. The one toy she bought was a six-passenger Polaris Ranger that she can legally drive on the streets of Kellogg.

She still commutes to the job she's held for the last 13 years. The money allowed her to enroll in online classes at Rochester Community and Technical College to work toward an associate's degree in health information technology. The degree may allow her to eventually move to another Mayo campus in a warmer climate, she said. She has her eye on Jacksonville, Fla.

Julie still shuttles her son off to wrestling practices, and she spent a recent weekend morning manning the concession stand during one of his tournaments.

And she still plays the lottery, buying a ticket now and then to see if lightning can strike twice.

"You can't win again if you don't play," she said.

Julie Nolan, right, of Kellogg, Minn., and her mother Diane Wendt, hold Nolan's cardboard check in January of 2008 after she won a million dollars in the Minnesota State Lottery.

Ah, lady after my own heart!

The amount she won wasn't all that much.  Even if I won the Mega Millions I would be in no hurry to replace my 1992 vehicle.  As I see it, a vehicle is simply a means of transportation and if it gets a person from one place to another it is doing its job.  There are much more interesting, as well as more important, things on which to spend one's money IMO. 

To each his own.

Ah, lady after my own heart!

The amount she won wasn't all that much.  Even if I won the Mega Millions I would be in no hurry to replace my 1992 vehicle.  As I see it, a vehicle is simply a means of transportation and if it gets a person from one place to another it is doing its job.  There are much more interesting, as well as more important, things on which to spend one's money IMO. 

To each his own.

One should do what they want with their money. If she doesn't feel like getting a new car at the moment or feels that her vehicle works for her needs, more power to her.

One should do what they want with their money. If she doesn't feel like getting a new car at the moment or feels that her vehicle works for her needs, more power to her.