How do I switch from Bitcoin-QT to a lighter, faster (SPV) Bitcoin client? So, keeping up to date with the blockchain is getting ridiculous in Bitcoin-QT, especially on my laptop.  If I leave it off or away from the internet for even a short period of time, it takes forever to catch up.

But, fortunately, the Bitcoin network allows for a simpler model, called Simplified Payment Verification (or SPV) mode where only the headers of blocks are needed.  In addition, the Bitcoin network has recently been updated to support bloom filtering so that a client only needs to download the transactions that it is interested in (plus some margin for privacy).

First question:  Is there a client capable of importing my Bitcoin-QT wallet that supports these two options? (and preferably has a light resource footprint if I'm not asking too much)

And secondly, if so, how can I accomplish the switch with minimal pain?
From my experience, your solution is the MultiBit Wallet software - it should satisfy all your requirements: https://multibit.org/index.html

I use it on a regular basis and found it satisfying, and also have the possibility of storing more than one wallet, you should give it a try.

Cheers.