Worlds Sexiest Female Athletes

Top ten sexiest and most attractive female player, athletes, celebrities in the world today. From swimming to cycling, beach volleyball to softball, NASCAR to F1, tennis to golf, football to basketball, soccer to baseball, we name the top male sports sex icons today.

1. Maria Yuryevna Sharapova - is a Russian professional tennis player. At the end of 2006, she was the world’s highest-paid female athlete. Sharapova has won two Grand Slam singles titles. She is the reigning U.S. Open champion, having defeated Justine Henin in the final of the 2006 U.S. Open. Two years earlier, she defeated Serena Williams in the final at Wimbledon.



2. Stacy Keibler - In the year 1999, Keibler entered a contest held by WCW to find a new member of Nitro Girls dance troupe, which she won. Initially a Nitro Girl, Keibler would perform dance routines every week on WCW’s flagship show Monday Nitro under the name Skye. However, this didn’t last long as she soon accepted a larger role and became a valet using the provocative stage name Miss Hancock (originally Miss Handcock), briefly serving as an associate for the tag team of Lenny Lane and Lodi dubbed “Standards and Practices”. Despite wearing business suits, her character would often climb on top of the announcers table and start dancing sensually, much to the announcers’ and fans’ delight. It was also during this period that she began using what would become her trademark ring entrance.



3. Shannon Elizabeth - Elizabeth appeared in several low-budget films, including the notorious Jack Frost and Dish Dogs, before being cast in 1999′s American Pie, which was a major box office success. Elizabeth subsequently appeared in several major Hollywood films, including Scary Movie (2000) and Tomcats. Elizabeth starred in the UPN series Cuts until the show was canceled in May of 2006. In August 1999, she appeared nude in Playboy magazine. In 2000 and 2003, she was featured in Maxim magazine.



4. Candice Michelle - Candice Michelle came to WWE as a contestant in the Diva Search 2004. Although she wasn’t one of the final ten contestants to make it to the televised event, WWE hired Candice anyway and placed her on the RAW brand under the gimmick of a makeup artist. Initially, Candice Michelle’s role was limited. She was never given an angle on RAW and she rarely made television appearances unless to participate in one of the program’s occasional lingerie pillow fights or bikini contests that were held between Christy Hemme, Maria Kanellis, Stacy Keibler, and herself.



5. Anna Kournikova - Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova was born on June 7, 1981 is a retired Russian professional tennis player and model. Although she never won a major singles tournament, she became one of the best known tennis players worldwide. At the peak of her fame, fans looking for images of Kournikova made her name one of the most common search strings on Google.



6. Nicole Vaidisova - Vaidišová is an emerging star in women’s tennis who has been playing since she was six years old. She is a student of Nick Bollettieri and is said to consider her serve her biggest weapon.[1] As of May 14 2007, Vaidišová is ranked no.7 in the WTA rankings. On August 9 2006, she moved up in the rankings to no.9, becoming the 12th-youngest player in Tour history to crack the Top 10, at 17 years, 3 months, and 2 weeks of age.



7. Shana Hiatt - Shana Hiatt is a model and presenter who has appeared in several magazines. A former Army brat rose primarily in Tabernacle, New Jersey, she is best known for hosting the first three seasons of World Poker Tour on the The Travel Channel. While Hiatt was a non-player prior to her job with the World Poker Tour, she is now an avid online poker player who occasionally plays in casinos.



8. Sania Mirza - Sania Mirza was on born November 15, 1986 is an Indian tennis player. She was born in Mumbai but brought up in Hyderabad. Coached by her father Imran Mirza, she began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003. She was the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with career high rankings of number 31 in singles and 24 in doubles. She is now ranked 48th in singles and 38th in doubles as of April 9th, 2007.



9. Danica Patrick - Danica Patrick began gokarting in 1992 at Sugar River Raceway outside of Brodhead, Wisconsin and went on to win several national championships. She moved to England at the age of 16 in order to advance her racing career. She has also earned a GED. Focusing primarily on road racing, Patrick raced in several developmental open-wheel series while in Europe, including Formula Ford and Formula Vauxhall. A big achievement was finishing second in England’s super-competitive Formula Ford Festival, the highest-ever finish by either a woman or an American in the event.



10. Martina Hingis - Martina Hingis (pronounced: hing-GISS) was born on September 30, 1980 in Košice, Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia is a former world number one Swiss tennis player. Known as the "Swiss Miss," she has won five Grand Slam singles titles (three Australian Open, one Wimbledon, and one US Open). She has also won nine Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, winning a calendar year Grand Slam in 1998, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title. She spent a total of 209 weeks as World No. 1 and set a series of "youngest-ever" records before ligament injuries in both ankles forced her to withdraw from professional tennis at the relatively early age of 22.

BOOKS BY CLAIRE BRANDENBURG, ABOUT MONKS AND PRAYER...

If you read my post about the book UNDER THE GRAPEVINE, by Chrissi Hart, then you've already been introduced to the beautiful artwork of Claire Brandenburg.  Claire, herself, has written and illustrated four beautiful children's books I'd like to mention today...



DANIEL AND THE LION (Conciliar Press) is a unique picture book, set in modern times, about an American boy named Daniel, who must face his own "Lion" - fear - brought on by a bully who has been picking on him at school.  Find out how Daniel receives help and comfort from not only his friends and family, but his guardian angel and the saints, in facing his fear.

"Jesus have mercy on me. I am really afraid of that Paul guy at school Help me.  Take away my fear"

THE MONK WHO GREW PRAYER (Conciliar Press)  I love this sweet, simple telling of a Monk who prays continually day and night as he goes about his tasks, such as working in his garden and chopping wood.

As he works, he is really growing prayer.

SONG OF THE TALANTON (Conciliar Press)  A visitor to a women's desert monastery is awoken early in the morning for prayer with the nuns by the rhythmic summons of the talanton.   (A talanton is a board used in monasteries for tapping out the call to prayer for different services during the day.)  This book comes with a wonderful audio CD.

THE TUMBLED STONE (New Varatec Publishing) In this beautifully told and illustrated tale, a pilgrim visiting Spruce Island (of St. Herman) in Alaska, finds a smooth stone that God uses to reveal to him the Saints of North America.

To learn more about Claire and all her books, visit her website.  Claire lives in Taos, New Mexico.

THE FUN AND SCIENCE OF BUBBLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How mesmerizing it is to look at a soap bubble, just a thin film of iridescent soapy water that somehow forms a sphere around nothing but air!  Blowing bubbles is such a carefree activity for children...I love watching their little outstretched hands trying to reach for the bubbles, barely floating up and out of their reach.  I love hearing their squeals of laughter, if they happen to touch one and watch it  - POP! - or better yet, land on those hands.

In our homeschooling years, I came across several books on the science of bubbles. There are also some cute picture books about counting bubbles and getting clean with them.  Blowing bubbles is just plain FUN for an afternoon in the backyard or at the park, at birthday parties, and of course, in the tub!


Picture Books:
CLIFFORD COUNTS BUBBLES by Norman Bridwell.  Clifford, the Big Red Dog counts bubbles.
BUBBLE, BUBBLE by Mercer Mayer.  A boy creates all kinds of animals with his magic bubble maker.
BUBBLES, BUBBLES by Kathi Appelt.  Bath-time bubbles!

Non-Fiction:

POP!  A BOOK ABOUT BUBBLES by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. (Ages 4-6)  Delightful color photographs accompany a text full of facts about bubbles.  Also, a page of experiments and a recipe for bubbles.
BUBBLES RAINBOWS & WORMS by Sam Ed Brown.  Science Projects for Preschoolers.
THE UNBELIEVABLE BUBBLE BOOK by John Cassidy, David Stein. (Klutz Press) Comes with instructions for using the attached "Bubble Thing" to create six-foot rainbow bubbles!  All ages.

Moving On Without LeBron

Mo Williams, 27, healthy, and has three years and $26 million remaining on his contract with Cleveland Cavaliers . But none of that mattered much to him this summer after he watched LeBron James(notes) leave the Cavs to join the Miami Heat. Williams said he was so disheartened by James’ exit that he considered walking away from the NBA.

“That’s how bad it got,” He said. “I contemplated it. I really sat down and envisioned life after basketball. …I really saw myself not playing at all.

“It just didn’t make sense to me. It doesn’t make sense to me.” He continued.

Williams played alongside James the past two seasons, serving as the Cavs’ starting point guard and second-leading scorer as they finished with the NBA’s best record two years in a row. Cleveland’s regular-season success, however, didn’t translate to the playoffs, where the Cavs fell short of reaching the NBA Finals both times. Still, Williams felt comfortable in his role next to James. He was named to the All-Star team in 2009 and remained hopeful that, together, they could deliver a championship to Cleveland in the 2010-11 season.

Those hopes all but disappeared on July 8 when James announced he was leaving. By the time of James’ televised special, Williams had heard from enough people around James to know his days of playing next to the two-time reigning MVP were over – even if Williams didn’t want to admit it.

“As anyone tied to the Cavs, you want to be in denial,” Mo said. “ You never want to say, ‘Yeah, OK, LBJ is gone.’ ”

Williams didn’t hide his disappointment; even tweeting in the hours after the announcement that he hoped James would change his mind. Williams also publicly expressed his regret for how James broke the hearts of Clevelanders and for the earlier firing of Coach Mike Brown, who had lost James’ support.

“I had to get it off my chest,” William said.

Williams said he and James remain friends, but he’s also tried to use the past two months to move on.

“You get back here to Cleveland, get around the new coaching staff, start a few workouts, get around the young guys and basically accept the fact that we are not what we once were,” he said. “We don’t have the No. 23 jersey hanging in the locker before every game now.”

James wasn’t the only key figure in the organization to leave in the off-season. Brown was fired and eventually replaced by Byron Scott. Former general manager Danny Ferry parted ways with the franchise, and his assistant, Chris Grant, was named the new GM. Assistant GM Lance Blanks left to help run the Phoenix Suns. The Cavs didn’t make any headline moves, acquiring role players in guard Ramon Sessions(notes) and center Ryan Hollins(notes), while trying to preserve future roster flexibility. Veteran forward Antawn Jamison(notes) is still on the roster, but both he and Williams could eventually find themselves on the trade block as the Cavs continue to rebuild.

“This summer was very, very stressful for me,” Mo said. “I really lost a lot of love for the game this summer.

“You play this game for one reason. You play to win games and win championships. I couldn’t understand why a lot of things were happening to our organization, to a really good basketball team. I couldn’t really understand it. And when you don’t understand things, it can really stress you out.”

Williams is slowly adapting to the new Cavaliers, who, along with their new coaching staff, will have a new offense that will be heavy on pick-and-rolls. Scott might play Williams at shooting guard with Sessions or Daniel Gibson(notes) running the point. In addition to being relied upon to score more, Williams inherits additional leadership responsibility with James and veteran center Zydrunas Ilgauskas(notes) gone.

“It’s crazy because ever since [James left], everybody I see, they approach me and say, ‘Hey, you’re going to be able to play your game now,’ ” Williams said. “ ‘You are going to be able to show everybody what you got,’ or ‘you’re going to be able to do this.’ I was happy with my role. We were winning basketball games. I was coming home every night a winner.

“Who can’t love that? That is what playing a role on a team is all about. Everybody can’t be the star. I was perfectly comfortable being that piece.”

How long will it take for Williams to grow comfortable with his new role? Not even he knows. But after two months, he also understands it doesn’t make much sense to sit around pining for his departed teammate.

“We just got to go to work, man,” He said. “At the end of the day we still have to move forward because the only people who feel sorry for us are the ones who have the Cavs uniform on and whoever is in the stands rooting for the Cavs. That’s it. Everybody else could care less.”

THE UNIVERSAL STORIES OF SWEDISH AUTHOR, ASTRID LINDGREN

illustrated by Louis S. Glanzman

One of my all-time favorite chapter books as a young girl, had to be PIPPI LONGSTOCKING (published in 1945).  Have you ever met her?  She is the strongest girl in the world, has bright red hair done up in braids that stick straight out on each side, wears odd stockings with men's shoes, and lives all alone in a wacky house ("Villa Villekulla") with her horse and a monkey named "Mr. Nilsson".  She is completely independent and does things in her own, unique way:  she sleeps with her feet on her pillow and her head under the covers, she makes cookies on the floor, and takes on burglars single-handedly.   Her mother died when she was a baby, and her father was lost at sea.  She befriends her neighbors, Annika and Tommy, and they share many adventures with her.  (PIPPI GOES ON BOARD (1946); PIPPI IN THE SOUTH SEAS (1948).   (Please don't waste your time on any of the adapted films - some things are just better left to the imagination!)

Illustration by Nancy Seligohn

Another series of books written by Astrid Lindgren is THE CHILDREN OF NOISY VILLAGE.  Think of Laura Ingalls Wilder's LITTLE HOUSE books, only set in Sweden.  Charming stories of a simpler time.  These delightful tales include CHRISTMAS IN NOISY VILLAGE and HAPPY TIMES IN NOISY VILLAGE, with quaint illustrations by Ilon Wikland.  There are three Swedish farm houses that make up "Noisy Village", named so because of how many children inhabit these homes!.  The story is told in first person by 9 year-old Lisa about the mischievous adventures of the children.  All the adventures are innocent and full of fun, and will be enjoyed by boys and girls alike.

A third set of books by Astrid Lindgren that I'd like to mention is THE TOMTEN and its companion story, THE TOMTEN AND THE FOX.  These two gorgeously illustrated picture books were favorites of my youngest son.  The setting is a quiet farmstead, deep in the forest:  "Here is a lonely old farm, where everyone is sleeping.  All but one..." a  little dwarf-like creature (think of a gnome*) from Swedish folklore, called a "Tomten" who guards the farm.  No one has ever seen him, but sometimes his little footprints are visible in the snow.  He checks on all the barnyard animals and talks to them in Tomten language (a silent little language they can understand).  He tiptoes to the house and peeks in on the sleeping children before going back to his cozy corner of the hayloft, where he dreams of the coming summer.

The second story is much the same with it's moonlit scenes - as the Tomten sees a fox, Reynard, who is prowling around the hen house.  He shares his porridge with the hungry fox and the chickens are kept safe... for another night.  The restful watercolor illustrations were done by Harald Wiberg.

* THE GNOME CRAFT BOOK The Gnome Craft Book includes instructions for making Astrid Lindgren’s classic gnome, the Tomten. 

"Childhood is not age, but a state of mind".  Astrid Lindgren

Why Shaquille O’Neal Play for the Enemy?

Just after the Los Angeles Lakers won last season's title, Kobe Bryant(notes) let slip a little comment ("I just got one more than Shaq. You can take that to the bank. You know how I am, I don't forget anything.") That proved what a lot of people had suspected for years — the Kobe/Shaq feud isn't over. As much as they'll be buddy-buddy at All-Star games or before their teams play each other, these two want nothing more than to destroy each other and prove that they are the best player of their generation. No matter what they say or how they act, that's always going to be the case.

In fact, the fact that that enmity will never die is the very reason the Boston Celtics took a chance on Shaquille O'Neal(notes). No, really, it is. Just because Kobe Bryant mentioned Shaq at his postgame press conference, the Celtics inked the well-traveled big man. Seriously. The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn has the proof.

Of course, this could be all a part of Kobe's master plan. It probably went something like beat the Celtics, rile up Shaquille O'Neal, have him convince Boston he'll help because he wants to beat Kobe one last time, then Boston signs Shaq and realizes he's not quite as good as he used to be and his presence in the locker room destroys the fragile chemistry that the Celtics have built. Just like that, there's one less contender for the Lakers' third straight title. It's a genius move, and it's one that only Kobe Bryant could conceive. And while it's totally far-fetched, it's kind of not that far-fetched. Only moderate distance-fetched, I'd say.

That being said, if Shaquille O'Neal is as dedicated to besting Kobe Bryant as the Celtics' brass thinks he is, Boston's getting a great deal. Less than $1.5 million for a motivated Shaq is totally worth it, even if he only plays 20 minutes a game. Sure he might struggle mightily against hyperathletic teams like the Heat and Magic in the Eastern Conference playoffs before Boston even meets the Lakers in the finals, but those are just minor details.

JUST FOR FUN: SOME ENTERTAINING READ ALOUDS WHEN KIDS ARE SICK

I recently came across two very entertaining books. They are perfect choices for reading aloud to a sick child, who is bored in bed and needing some cheering up.

The first book is an older classic - one of those "just for fun" books that sparks the imagination.  Like the boy in the story, your child may want to get busy with A BIG BALL OF STRING (written and illustrated in 1958, by Marion Holland, grades K-3)

Told in rhyming text, it's the story of a boy who starts collecting pieces of string...  "I had a little string.  It was no good at all.  I went to look for more string to make a string ball."  When he comes down with a cold and finds himself sick in bed, he keeps himself occupied by thinking up things to do with the string:  "I can look at my book!  I can shoot with my gun!  I make my bell ring! I can make my train run!" 

Who knew what a fun investment a ball of string could be?

The second "just for fun" book I'd like to mention, was recommended to me by a friend and her avid library-going preschooler.  It's a newer book:  RHYMING DUST BUNNIES, written and illustrated by Jan Thomas,  and wasn't around when my kids were little. But if it had been, the laughs we'd have gotten from it would have made allergies and all the efforts we made against them more bearable!  

This is one of the silliest and funniest books I've ever come across.  It's about three Dust Bunnies who are having fun rhyming.  A fourth friend, "BOB", just doesn't quite seem to catch on.   They don't understand his offering of, "Look!", in their attempt to rhyme, "far, jar, and tar" with "car".  And when they try to rhyme "bug":  "rug...hug...mug", his response is, "Look out!"  Assuming he's just rhyme challenged, but not realizing he's simply warning them about an approaching "monster with a broom" (a vaccum), they get swept along and...well, you'll have to go find the book to see how the hilarity ends! 

Jan Thomas has written and illustrated several other picture books that are just as fun!