About Us

My name is Martina Wood, born July 4th, 1969. I lived in Miami, Florida until the age of 10 - My family moved to Mississippi in 1979 and I lived with my grandmother until the age of 17. I have 4 brothers and 1 sister. Sonny, Kirk, Cindy, John and Martin. I'm the fifth child...

The beautiful little girl you see above is my daughter Shelby - the beast in the picture next to her is my brother Martin! ;-) The next picture is my co-worker at Pioneer - her name is Rachel and we were hired on the same day - almost 4 years ago now! And of course, the last image is my awesome sister-in-law Tammy. We were in Vegas "living it up" when this picture was taken.

I have lived here in Southern California since November, 1988.

I work as a Project Lead for E-business. I received my PMP certification on March 1st - I received a promotion and a new title as a result of this certification!

STORIES OF OUR ADVENTURES

Sometimes a moment in life is captured in such a way as to create a "story" - I love to hear these stories and would love to hear yours - not only hear it, but write it down so others and myself can enjoy them again and again. I'll start off with some of my own and will add to it - but I do encourage your participation. Email me at martina@woodnet.us.

Stranded on the Side of the Road (April, 2002)

All of a sudden I see the strangest look on Mike's face - I can't figure out what it means - Its a Monday and we are on our way home after work - traffic is not the greatest - I feel the car slowing down - Mike looks over and apologizes to me before I even know what's wrong - he says, "Babe, we just ran out of gas." I can't say out loud what I think to myself - haha! Of course he wants to make sure its not "engine trouble" - after a couple of minutes of me asking him to call AAA - a tow truck pulls in front of us - he offers us gas and we're on our way again. The lesson I learned from this experience is to monitor Mike's gas gauge - Mike - what did you learn?

Lake Arrowhead (April, 2002)

Ah, such a wonderful day! We went up to Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead to go offroading - the weather was gorgeous - and the jeep was doing GREAT! We were climbing over rocks and going through streams - we all had a great time! The reason we went that particular weekend was because Mike had just done some work on the jeep the weekend before while up at his parents. He wanted to test out his new components - and I must admit, I was WAY impressed with the improvements. I even got to drive and the new low gear he installed made it so simple! It was getting late so we started to head home when we were hit with huge clouds of fog - visibility was almost nothing! It was very hard to see and we were extra cautious - no matter, all of our nerves were a bit wracked by the tedious fashion in which we had to make our way down the mountain. Once on the freeway again we were all back to normal.  So we're making our way home and all of sudden, I see that strange look on Mike's face again - of course, I think to myself, "We've just run out of gas again" - but its even worst! We've lost the clutch! We pull over to a Frye's Electronics parking lot while Mike tries to see what is going on - it doesn't look good - there is fluid gushing out. Mike's got an idea - he's going to start it in gear - and we'll drive home like that.

To make it home like that was the MOST amazing thing! HAAHAHAHAHA!

TERRA DEL SOL in ANZO BORENGO (March, 2002)

Do you have any idea how hard it is to wake up an 11 year old at the crack of dawn, on a weekend?? It took Shelby and I 3.5 hours to get there - there is the middle of NOWHERE! A place called "Truckhaven" - it was an annual Jeep Rally - where thousands of jeep owners come camp out for a weekend of offroading in treacherous terrain - It is PURE desert - no trees, nothing living! Just... dirt....dry, dirt.......... Mike and Cody came and met us at the entrance - we followed them to camp! I had never seen that many jeeps in one place before - Its about 9am and we have arrived JUST in time to line up and get going. We've got four jeeps in our "convoy" - everyone sets their CB radio station to the same channel and we're off! Shelby, Cody, Mike and I are riding in his jeep and we're last - because we have the strongest jeep! Some of the canyons we were riding through were so narrow I didn't know how we were going to fit through. We went up a couple of really rough hills - so bad that Shelby wanted to get out. I thought we might roll over a couple of times - There was this one particular course that some of the jeeps were trying to get over - it was a WALL - when the jeep would try to get over it, they would be tilted completely straight up - almost walking up this wall. I only saw one jeep make it - the rest got stuck, broke part, and ROLLED OVER!

So Cody starts encouraging his dad to try to go over this wall - not just encouraging him - DARING HIM.... No one else in our convoy is stepping forward to take a try - Mike decides to go for it. We have already seen about 15 jeeps FAIL and only ONE make it.

Mike starts getting the jeep ready - letting air out of the tires - I can tell he's determined to go over that wall - there are so many jeeps that want to try in front of us its a good half hour wait till its our turn. Mike and Cody get in the jeep - Mike's dad is watching - everyone is watching - the jeep gets halfway over the wall - the wheels are burning - you can smell it - its shaking violently but it is NOT going over that wall. Mike has to back off of it - he tries again - it is SO close - there is dirt flying EVERYWHERE - but still, the jeep is NOT going over that wall. Mike backs down for the second time and his father, Woody, steps in for a few words of encouragement - he says, "Son, you don't have a hair on your ass if you don't make it over that wall" - He also tells him he was so close he thinks he can make it  - so Mike decides he'll try one, final attempt. The angle of the wall is absolutely "straight up" - so that when Mike pulls up to the wall you can hear his wench hit the wall - the tires grab and the jeep starts to climb - its almost as if its going to flip right over - the wheels start to burn and the jeep is once again rocking violently - from side to side - I couldn't believe what I saw next - the jeep WENT OVER! Woody raises his arm iin a sign of triumph as he shouts to anyone listening, "That's MY son!" We were all very proud - It takes a few moments for Mike and Cody to make it back over to where we were parked - Cody is covered in dirt - his face is orange! His eyes are crying but they are both so happy!