Help, please

I'm really new at this and a writer by professional trade so these questions might sound really blonde. I need to know a couple of things.
One: How do I get text to center in the picbox?
Two: What the heck is a mangled thread and how do I get a thread to mangle and then count the vowels it has?
If you can't tell this is all for a class I'm taking (and nearly failing).
Please help me! And explain it like you're explaining it to a two-year-old because I'm a girl and blonde.
Thanks!

The center is width divided by 2, and height divided by 2, so find those values and put the text there.

x = picture1.width / 2
y = picture1.height / 2
text at x,y

something like that.

not quite, that won't allow for the width of the text

x = (picture1.width - picture1.textwidth("my text"))/2
y = (picture1.height - picture1.textheight("my text"))/2

text at x,y