HELP...I'm changing the springs/shocks...where to jack up?

[detroiter]

I'm going to be getting to this long awaited project and I'm curious where the best place is to jack up on the front and rear ends when doing each side. Also, on all of the DIY guides, I don't see anything about how to get the rear shocks off...is it just held on by the two bolts in the hatch area where you pop the plastic top off?

One other question is when using the box wrench to get the top off of the front struts, do I take those all the way off or will the spring fly underneath? I know it's kind of a dumb question but want to cover all of my bases. I'd imagine you have to take the bolts off of that top hat area under the hood so you can actually get the strut top hat off, but just not sure.