If you’re relaxing on a Caribbean beach, or enjoying a bus tour through historic Paris, the last thing you want to worry about is your home. Most people know the basics of keeping a home secure while away. Here are some additional tips that are easy to miss: 

• Tell your kids not to boast about your fabulous vacation plans, especially on social media. The fewer who know that the house will be empty, the better. 

• Ask a neighbour to pick up any mail and flyers dropped at your doorstep. But don’t rely on that alone. Also call the newspaper and post office to temporarily halt delivery. 

• You can buy timers to automatically turn lights on and off. However, most will stop working if the power goes out and restart with the incorrect time when the power comes back on. That’s why you should keep at least a couple of lights turned on continuously, and not connected to timers. 

• If you’re leaving in the evening, or before dawn, don’t forget to open the blinds. Closed blinds during the day are a dead giveaway that the owners are away. 

  Finally, experts recommend creating a home security checklist, so you don’t forget anything. That will give you peace-of-mind. 

Congratulations to Lauren above and Lachlan below our Easter Coluring Contest Winners!

We wish we could showcase all of our entries as each and every one was a masterpiece. 

All of us at The Bettina Reid Group want to thank all of the children that entered our Colouring Contest. Be sure to watch the mail for a special thank you card from all of us! Look for our next colouring contest this fall for Halloween 2015. 

Happy Easter from All of Us at The Bettina Reid Group! We hope everyone gets a chance to spend the day with family and friends....and of course gets to eat LOTS of chocolate! I think my husband misses having little ones around to hide chocolate for. But mainly so that he can steal their chocolate when they aren't looking. :)

It has been a few months since we visited Wild Wing, first because as delicious as wings are they aren't the healthiest of foods. But the other reason we hadn't visited was because we were a little skeptical as to whether or not we would get what we wanted when we ordered.

So last weekend I didn't feel like cooking after working all day and picked up Wild Wing for dinner. The last couple times we ordered take out there, we were either missing something or our meals just weren't right. I am sure much of that was because the business was very new and new businesses always have kinks to work out. Which is why I gave them another chance, that and we love their wings. I am sure I said that before. 

I did speak with the owner this time just to let him know about my previous experiences and ask for them to please ensure my order was right this time. He was very good and appreciated the feedback. Feedback good or bad is always helpful to any business owner...myself included.

I was very impressed with how the owner handled the situation. He had asked me to text him so that he could bring this to his staff. After a few texts back and forth he thanked me again for the feedback as well as for coming back to give them another chance. I let him know our meal was delicious and as we had ordered it. But what really impressed me was how well he handled the situation. He mentioned it to his wife who had been aware of a previous mistake and let him know she remembered me. He also mentioned being a family owned and run business and they were going to continue to strive to make everyone's experience better. This type of service encourages people like myself and others to want to tell others about them. 

Many times I have had friends complain about an experience they had at a local restaurant. But they never complained to that particular establishment. I used to work in the restaurant business as a server putting myself through University. If you don't give good service you don't make money. That goes not just for servers but also for managers, hostesses, owners and anyone else working in a restaurant. Because if you don't try to make things right by your customers they won't come back and they won't recommend you to others. In fact nowadays with social media, negative feedback can ruin businesses. 

If you don't voice your concern when something is not right with your meal or your experience in a restaurant then it will likely happen again since they don't know that anything is wrong. The way the restaurant handles whatever the situation is reflects how they do business and whether or not they will succeed. 

If you want to read my first blog about them to see what our favourite wings are, visit the following link: Wild Wing

Just to show you Facebook ads and social media really does work. A few weeks ago my husband saw a sponsored ad for a new local restaurant in Langley - Osso Lunchroom and liked their page. Then he kept showing me their posts and as everyone who knows us knows, we love good restaurants that offer great food. In my next life, I would love to be a food critic. :)

So, today I took my team out to Welcome Erinn Mate to our team as well as to celebrate Kara Berman's birthday! We all REALLY enjoyed our meals. 2 of us had the Butternut Squash ravioli special and the others had the kale/butternut squash salad and the Beet salad. We then finished off our meals off with the ricotta donuts. The chef was great and even brought Kara out a little something special wiht a candle to wish her Happy Birthday! Everything was ABSOLUTELY delicious.

We will be back...many times I am sure.

My husband is jealous as he has been wanting to try this place since it opened but is never around during their business hours. :) But even though he didn't get to try a whole meal in the restaurant, they had containers with their homemade meatballs that I brought home for him to try and gave me an easy dinner. :) I had the meatballs and sauce on pasta and he had a meatball sandwich. Again DELICIOUS!!! Now he can't wait for either a day off during the week or for 
Osso Lunchroom to open for lunch on the weekends. 

Next time you are looking for a good restaurant to eat breakfast or lunch or maybe want to grab a few drinks and bite after work...check out their place you won't be disappointed!

Visit their website at the following link Osso Lunchroom or check them out on Facebook Osso Lunchroom Facebook Page

We are very excited, our team is growing again. We wanted to give our new team member a very warm welcome. Kara, Lisa and I are looking forward to working with Erinn Mate. She is a great addition to the team and will play a big part in helping us to reach our goals for 2015.

Here's a little bit about Erinn, please join us in welcoming her to our team!

Hello, my name is Erinn Mate and I am excited to be a part of the Bettina Reid Group.  I have been in sales and customer service for the last 20 years and see myself continuing for many more to come.

I bought my first house in 1999, currently living in our sixth, and I believe that my involvement with the buying and selling of our previous houses has given me valuable experience in the real estate market.

In 2001, I married my college sweetheart and we have three beautiful children together. Through my husband's work, we have had many transfer opportunities and have recently moved back to BC after living in Alberta; BC is home and where we want to raise our family.

As a mother and a wife, I realize how important family is, and my mission is to ensure the needs and wants of our clients, as well as their families, are met and I will provide the highest standards of service.  I believe that a good real estate agent doesn’t disappear once the papers are signed.

Last year I met a very interesting local Langley woman through Twitter. Her tweets caught my eye and I contacted her to meet for coffee. After meeting Marzia Molatore, I knew I wanted to get to know her better and take one or more of her Bella Cibo Italian cooking classes.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a self professed foodie and love to learn how to cook new and exciting dishes. In the past I have taken cooking classe at Well Seasoned in Langley and have since learnt how to make the most amazing delicious and fresh greek dishes.

I had intended on doing a one on one cooking class but before I knew it, we were into the holiday season and too busy with work and holiday events to even think of taking a cooking class. Then Marzia was offering to make home cooked meals that we could order and pay for. I thought what better way to see if I  would like her cooking (not that I really had any doubt, as I have never found an Italian Mama that couldn't cook...although I am sure there are plenty out there that can't.)  As a working Mom, it was a perfect chance for me to get some fresh prepared homemade foods to save me from having to cook late on those busy holiday nights. I ordered a lasagna, some baked pasta and meatballs. My family loved the lasagna so much that they no longer wanted me to make my lasagna that had always been a hit. I wasn't heartbroken though as I agreed, her lasagna was delicious, I had never eaten a lasagna with so many thin layers of pasta, no ricotta and the best part made with both a tomato bolognese sauce and a bechamel sauce. I later learnt that ricotta is a North American version of lasagna. In Italy you won't find ricotta in lasagna, you will find variations of the one she makes. 

Finally this month after raving so much about her cooking, I arranged to take her class and invited a few friends to join me and we all had a blast learning how to make lasagna from scratch. We made the dough, rolled it out (with a handy kitchen aid mixer and pasta maker attachment - which we now all want to invest in) We all made a small lasagna to take home and share with our family. Which I am pretty sure we all did for dinner the following night. 

I love to support local businesses and even more so a local business woman like myself. 

if you're interested in learning how to cook Italian visit Marzia's website Bella Cibo and follow her on facebook:

Bella Cibo

Facebook -Bella Cibo