The status updates that you are referring to can be reverted to the older style by disabling the js_notice plugin in your config. I would have used a more inline approach but I had trouble making it fit well so I tried to do something similar to the way firefox notifies you about blocking pop ups or saving a password.

The js_help plugin that adds the mouse over help to the options page changes the text to bold and adds a border, which I believe is the reason you are experiencing the page "shifting. You can alter this by editing hastymail2/plugins/js_help/work.php lines 64 - 66.

I will see what I can do to address both of these issues in future releases of each plugin. Thanks for the feedback,
Jason