Well I have somewhat of an update here.

After my LBS spent some time on the phone with FSA verifying that my wifes bike DID in fact have the newest and improved chainrings on it, they suggested that we try a sram chain, as it's more flexible and would be less likely to jam between the chainrings on downshifts. Today I took the bike back in and had them put the new chain on and so far there is a huge improvement on downshifts. Haven't gotten a stuck chain once on any of our trial runs ( and I did a lot of shifting) but a definite ease on the pedal torque is still necessary to get the chain to climb to the big ring. It's much better than it was, but time will tell whether this is livable for my wife or still severely annoying. So far the switch to the sram chain appears to be helping out the situation, and for now I'm satisfied. But as we all know, unless the Mrs. is happy...the problem hasn't been fully resolved. =) Thanks again for your input.

-Jeremy