Why would I address get set to freeze unless I do that?
most probably you misclicked the option and it froze that address by accident.
And when you guys select an address for reception do you just select the one in the receive box or should I take another step?
the receive tab is to make things easier and avoid causing confusing for new users. it also automatically avoids address reuse by giving you an unused address from your wallet to receive coins in.
if you want to have full control yourself then you can enable the address tab and then select any address you want. add labels to them to know where you used them and things like that.