Simple .php help

Hi all. I'm working on a blog and need some what I think is simple .php help. (I just don't know php!)

I have some text that goes over the slides that I would like to change just to static text. There are 5 slides, so I would like 5 different text options. Here is what the code looks like currently:

<?php
if(get_theme_option('featured_posts') != '') {
?>
<script type="text/javascript">
function startGallery() {
var myGallery = new gallery($('myGallery'), {
timed: true,
delay: 6000,
slideInfoZoneOpacity: 0.8,
showCarousel: false
});
}
window.addEvent('domready', startGallery);
</script>
<div class="fullbox_excerpt">
<div class="fullbox_content">
<div class="smooth_gallery">
<div id="myGallery">

<?php
$featured_posts_category = get_theme_option('featured_posts_category');

if($featured_posts_category != '' && $featured_posts_category != '0') {
global $post;

$featured_posts = get_posts("numberposts=5&&category=$featured_posts _category");
$i = 0;
foreach($featured_posts as $post) {
setup_postdata($post);
if ( version_compare( $wp_version, '2.9', '>=' ) ) {
$slide_image_full = get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID,'large', array('class' => 'full'));
$slide_image_thumbnail = get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID,'large', array('class' => 'thumbnail'));
} else {
$get_slide_image = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'featured', true);
$slide_image_full = "<img src=\"$get_slide_image\" class=\"full\" alt=\"\" />";
$slide_image_thumbnail = "<img src=\"$get_slide_image\" class=\"thumbnail\" alt=\"\" />";
}

?>
<div class="imageElement">
<h3><?php the_title(); ?></h3>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="open"></a>
<?php echo $slide_image_full; ?>
<?php echo $slide_image_thumbnail; ?>
</div>
<?php }
} else {
for($i = 1; $i <=5; $i++) {
?>
<div class="imageElement">
<h3>This is featured post <?php echo $i; ?>Title</h3>
<p>To set your featured posts, please go to your theme options page in wp-admin. You can also disable featured posts slideshow if you don't wish to display them.</p>
<a href="#" title="This is featured post <?php echo $i; ?>" class="open"></a>
<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/jdgallery/slides/<?php echo $i; ?>.jpg" class="full" alt="" />
<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/jdgallery/slides/<?php echo $i; ?>.jpg" class="thumbnail" alt="" />
</div>
<?php
}
}

?>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<?php } ?>

I really don't care that slides are pointing to articles, I have the images I want installed. I just need to change the overtext...to not be dependent on the articles, just to imput some text into the code.

Thanks for your help! :p