Karen,
There's been at least two over-the-air updates for our version of CyanogenMod since we installed it. Have you done the updates?
I've had no problems with lag on my HD+, so I believe your problems have nothing to do with the hardware. I have my Gmail syncing on my Nook, but I don't get the downloading problem you do. You've got something else going on with your Nook, but it's difficult for us to help without actually seeing it.
You can reboot into the CyanogenMod boot loader. I forget what it's called and I don't have my Nook with me. If you hold the power button, one of the options is to reboot into the loader. From there, you can choose to do a factory reset (I don't remember the exact words). This will reset everything back to like when you first installed the CyanogenMod ROM. You'll have to reinstall all your apps, but it won't wipe out your SD card.
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