Dogs, TKD, swimming phones

Richard has been dog sitting lately. First it was Toby, a sweet little Sheltie. He liked to chase the kitties, but got along great with Black Dog. We never introduced him to Shylo, but they probably would have done fine. Shylo has fought with Black Dog before, which makes me nervous, but they both want to be the Alpha females. That is why Black Dog lives at mom's house and Shylo lives at mine. They both do great with male dogs.
Toby's mom came home and now Richard is watching another dog. He has watched this one before, his name was Stanley then. He was just a puppy then, and his mom felt that Stanley didn't fit his personality. During the search for a new name he became Pupsie Pie. That isn't really what she was going to choose, but it is what stuck. We just call him Pupsie. He and Shylo have been having a great time together. This picture is through the screen, so it is a little grainy. They play all of the time. We haven't braved having the cats around with Pupsie. They go into their room (they have their own bedroom with beds, cat trees, cat box, and food and water of course) and the dogs come in. Pupsie has been sleeping in Richard's bedroom.

It has been interesting having a dog around who can go everywhere a cat can go. We are not used to small dogs! Here he is lounging on the back of Tim's chair, Richard is sitting in the chair.

It has been rainy lately. That always happens some around the 4th of July. It almost always rains before fireworks, nature trying to help out!
We have mushrooms in the front yard. It hasn't been moist enough for mushrooms in ages! You can see baby morning glories coming up too (and some weeds, and yes I know morning glories are weeds in other places, I just think that is weird though!). I haven't decided whether I will mow the lawn or just let the flowers grow. I imagine I will end up leaving them. I hate cutting down something so pretty.

Richard competed in (and helped judge!) our regional TaeKwonDo tournament a few weeks ago. He won a Gold medal in Sparring and a Gold medal in Extreme Forms, which is one that he makes up himself, and it has to have "extreme" moves in it like flips, rolls, and jumps. Here he is bowing to the judges and getting his medals. The tallest man in the center of his line of judges is Russ Ervin, the owner of the Las Cruces TKD school where the tournament was held.

We went up to the lake (Elephant Butte Lake, for those who don't know) for a week over the 4th of July. We had a good time. I sat on the beach a lot, and went for rides in the blue boat. Richard did LOTS of tubing, kneeboarding, fishing, boating and playing in the water. I would have pictures, but my phone went swimming! I thought I was done in the water for the day, and the wind came up as it often does at the lake. You just expect the wind to come up a little every day or so. Anyway, we got our stuff tied down pretty quickly with everyone pitching in, then went to help the neighbors. I jumped in the water to help the big Richard hold the neighbor's boat, and forgot that I had my phone! Ugh! So no 4th of July beach pictures. Unfortunately Lauren did the exact same thing a couple of days later! The price you pay for helping others I guess. We both got them replaced fairly quickly though. It was worth it for a good time at the lake with family.