Jquery thickbox - form problem

[eluser]Kristof[/eluser]
Hi guys,

I'm still new to CI. But i'm working on a new project (to learn CI). I want a registrationform within a jquery thickbox, check it and send it via ajax.
The sending part is easy but i have a problem with the checking of inputfield.
For some reason

Code:

var name = $("input#name").val();

wont work.

It seems like it can't find the inputfields. The strange part is that if i send the form using the js-function (serialize()), it does find the inputfields.

Any ideas ?
a live example is to be found on http://ci.denieuwekantine.be click on "not a member yet".

More info:
view:

Code:

[removed][removed]
[removed][removed]
<div id="contact_form">
  &lt;form name="contact" method="post" action=""&gt;
    <fieldset>
      <label for="name" id="name_label">Name</label>
      &lt;input type="text" name="name" id="name" size="30" value="" class="text-input" /&gt;
      <label class="error" for="name" id="name_error">This field is required.</label>
      
      <label for="email" id="email_label">Return Email</label>
      &lt;input type="text" name="email" id="email" size="30" value="" class="text-input" /&gt;
      <label class="error" for="email" id="email_error">This field is required.</label>
      
      <label for="phone" id="phone_label">Return Phone</label>
      &lt;input type="text" name="phone" id="phone" size="30" value="" class="text-input" /&gt;
      <label class="error" for="phone" id="phone_error">This field is required.</label>
      
        <br />
      &lt;input type="submit" name="submit" class="button" id="submit_btn" value="Send" /&gt;
    </fieldset>
  &lt;/form&gt;
</div>

regform.js

Code:

$(function() {
  $('.error').hide();
  $('input.text-input').css({backgroundColor:"#FFFFFF"});
  $('input.text-input').focus(function(){
    $(this).css({backgroundColor:"#FFDDAA"});
  });
  $('input.text-input').blur(function(){
    $(this).css({backgroundColor:"#FFFFFF"});
  });

  $(".button").click(function() {
        // validate and process form
        // first hide any error messages
    $('.error').hide();
        
      var name = $("input#name").val();
      //alert (name);
        if (name == "") {
      $("label#name_error").show();
      $("input#name").focus();
      return false;
    }
        var email = $("input#email").val();
        if (email == "") {
      $("label#email_error").show();
      $("input#email").focus();
      return false;
    }
        var phone = $("input#phone").val();
        if (phone == "") {
      $("label#phone_error").show();
      $("input#phone").focus();
      return false;
    }
        
    
});

So i hope someone can help me thanks in advance