Hi Melitabel!
Notifications are on a pulldown screen from the top of your EE (same for PE), LCD side. Hold your finger or stylus on the top white bar for a second. You will see a rectangle of light-colored dots in the center. Pull the rectangle down with your finger or stylus.
It's kind of like a window shade. You will see your notifications, if you have any, listed there. You can tap on the notice to download or activate it, or tap on the "clear" button to cancel the notice. You can drag the window up to close it if you need to.
It is not normal for your EE to freeze like that, but you might be experiencing the hibernation bug that some people have. There's another thread discussing that issue here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=141537.